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The SKIP system indexing kanji developed by Jack Halpern is useful to students with no prior knowledge of radicals. Kanji are organized based their shape, and can be grouped into these four categories:
1) Left-Right
These can be divided vertically, such as 時(time), which can be broken down into the left 日 (sun) and right segment 寺(temple). Thus, 時 would be in this group with 4 strokes in its left segment and 6 in its right, giving it a SKIP number 1-4-6. (In cases where there are 3 vertical segments, the leftmost discrete element is treated as the left segment).
2) Up-Down
Using the above principle but for kanji divided horizontally such as 寺 (temple), (土(earth) and 寸(measurement)). 寺 would have 3 strokes in its up section and 3 strokes in its down section, giving it a SKIP code of 2-3-3. As above, the topmost discrete element is used.
3) Enclosure
An element of the kanji borders other elements. They can border other elements on 2 sides (広), or 3(風), or be completely surrounding (国). The bordering element’s stroke count is followed by that of the elements inside. Thus, the SKIP no. of 風 (wind) is 3-2-7.
4) Solid
Cannot be easily based on the other patterns. Often these kanji are a single radical (e.g.十, 人, 子). Sub–patterns come from a main line being 1: top 2: bottom 3: through 4: other, so our SKIP is: (4) – (whole stroke count) – (No. of sub-pattern). E.g. 子 is 4-3-1(‘top’ pattern).
See if you can work out the skip codes of some simple kanji and check your values in Emergency Passport * Japanese Script.
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