Below is a listing of the meaningful graphics that appears in Japanese Visual Language related to representations of emotion. Some might call these “symbols” or “emanata”, but following our linguistic approach to graphics, we call these “visual morphology.”
Many of these should be familiar from manga and anime, and many of the morphemes were inspiration for emoji.
This listing supplements the paper, “The vocabulary of manga: Visual morphology in dialects of Japanese Visual Language” by Neil Cohn and Sean Ehly (PDF), which analyzes how these visual vocabulary items are used in both Shonen and Shojo manga. This analysis was part of the Visual Language Research Corpus Project. This list is not considered exhaustive, and this project is part of ongoing corpus analyses of the structures of visual languages found in comics around the world.
Morphemes are organized by their morphological types. Each example of morphemes lists different information about it:
Morpheme
Meaning
Morphological Type
Associated body part
Image reference in the format of (Book: page #, panel #). For full listing of references, see below.
Corresponding emoji
Graphic References
1. Hoshino, Katsura. (2004). D.Gray-Man. Viz Media. Chapter 1, 1-54. 2. Ikeda, Akihisa. (2004). Rosario+Vampire II. Viz Media. Chapter 1, 1-47. 3. Isayama, Hajime. (2009). Shingeki no Kyojin [Attack on Titan]. Kodansha Comics. Chapter 1, 1-49. 4. Kato, Kazue. (2009). Ao no Exorcist. Shueisha. Chapter 1, 1-65. 5. Kishimoto, Masashi. (1999). Naruto. Shueisha. Chapter 1, 1-50. 6. Kubo, Tite. (2001). Bleach. Viz Media. Chapter 1, 1-53. 7. Mashima, Hiro. (2006). Fairy Tail. Kodansha Comics. Chapter 1, 1-72. 8. Oda, Eiichiro. (1997). One Piece. Viz Media. Chapter 1, 1-50. 9. Okubo, Atsushi. (2004). Soul Eater. Yen Press. Chapter 1, 1-59.
10. Tamura, Ryuhei. (2008). Beelzebub. Shueisha. Chapter 1, 1-56. 11. Fujiwara, Hiro. (2005). Kaichou wa Maid-sama! Tokyopop. Chapter 1, 1-31. 12. Hazuki, Kanae. (2012). Say “I love you”. Kodansha Comics. Chapter 1, 1-43. 13. Hino, Matsuri. (2004). Vampire Knight. Viz Media. Chapter 1, 1-48. 14. Kouichi, Kaede. (2008). Love so Life. Hakusensha. Chapter 1, 1-43. 15. Minami, Kanan. (2007). Kyo, Koi o Hajimemasu. Shogakukan. Chapter 1, 1-39. 16. Motomi, Kyousuke. (2007). Dengeki Daisy. Viz Media. Chapter 1, 1-47. 17. Nakamura, Yoshiki. (2002) Skip Beat. Viz Media. Chapter 1, 1-48. 18. Sakurakoji, Kanoko. (2007). Black Bird. Shogakukan. Chapter 1, 1-38. 19. Tanaka, Meca. (2007). Faster than a Kiss. Hakusensha. Chapter 1, 1-42. 20. Toyama, Ema. (2009). Watashi ni XX Shinasai! Kodansha Comics. Chapter 1, 1-41. 21. Azuma Kiyohiko. (2007) Azumanga Daioh: The Omnibus. AD Vision. 22. Takhashi, Rumiko. Ranma 1/2. Viz Media. 23. Azuma Kiyohiko. (2006) Yotsubato. Vol.5, Tokyo: Media Works.