Kanji pictorial origins?

[Sp3ctre18]

Out of curiosity, I was wondering if there's a site that shows why the kanji is composed the way it is. I know not all kanji are pictorial in nature, for those that are, I'd like to see the connection.

actually, in an nutshell, it would be good to find site with the 1945 kanji explaining why they look that way, whether it's picture or old calligraphy or whatever.

The closest thing I found was about.com, had a kanji of the week series, but there were only like 30 kanji there.

thanks!

[goulnik]

most Kanji originated in China, and most of them are radical+phonetic compounds, but for the remaining ideographic characters, there's the "Fun with Chinese characters" paperback cartoon series published by the Strait Times of Singapore, which I'm sure you can download from some place...

[Belton]

I know 2 etymology sites

http://www.chineseetymology.org/

and

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/index.cfm

Although you'll have to search individually for kanji.

The childrens kanji books by 下村昇 have a derivation for all the grade school kanji. You can see some of these in the previews on Amazon.

[Belton]

PS
Henshall's "A Guide To Remembering Japanese Characters"
has etymology for the Jouyou set.

[Sp3ctre18]

Thank you both very much!! Belton, so far those two links have served me well, especially kanjinetworks. Very cool, thanks again.