#ideographic

Cone of Urukagina, king of Lagash, circa 2350  BC,

Girsu, Mesopotamia,

Detailing his reforms againt abuse of "old days".

Height: 27 cm (10.6 in); diameter: 15 cm (5.9 in).

喜 - Rejoice, take pleasure in

Kun: よろこ.ぶ、よろこ.ばす

On: キ

(Pinyin: xǐ | xi3 )

Ideographic: Depicts someone making merry with a drum 壴 and their mouth 口; drumming and making noise with their mouth; drumming and singing; partying

As far as I'm aware, 壴 is not used for drum in modern Japanese. Instead 鼓 is used, which you might notice uses the older 壴 as a component.

(喜 as it appeared in the Shuowen Jiezi, ~100 AD, with a slightly clearer drum + decoration on top of it)

(Example of a Chinese brass drum with decoration on top, supposedly from the Zhou dynasty, to further illustrate how 壴 is meant to picture a decorated drum)

Strokes: 12

John Hoyland R.A. Lucky Dream, 1991.

驚 - Wonder, be surprised, frightened, amazed

Kun: おどろ.く、おどろ.かす On: キョウ (Pinyin: jīng | jing1 )

Pictophonetic: 敬 represents the sound (pinyin jìng | jing4),  馬 (horse) represents the meaning

Also Ideographic: Awe 敬 (awe, respect), but in a spooked way 馬 (horse)

This kanji originally only meant to frighten/to startle - horses are notoriously skittish and easily startled, hence the choice of 馬 as the meaning component.

計 - Plot, plan, scheme, measure, count

Kun: はか.る、 はか.らう On: ケイ (Pinyin: jì | ji4 )

Ideographic: speaking 言 (speech) numbers 十 (ten) out loud. Counting; calculating.

薬 - Medicine, chemical, enamel, gunpowder, benefit

Kun: くすり On: ヤク (Pinyin: yào | yao4 )

Pictophonetic: 楽 indicates the sound (pinyin lè | le4, yuè | yue4) 艹/艸 (grass) indicates the meaning

The phonetic component has changed so much it's barely recognizable in the Chinese pinyin, but it's still visibly related in the Japanese On-readings (薬 = ヤク vs 楽 = ガク、ラク)

Also ideographic: Relieving 楽 (ease, comfort) grass 艹/艸 (grass)

新 - New

Kun: あたら.しい、あら.た、あら-、にい- On: シン (pinyin: xīn | xin1 )

Ideographic: A tree 亲, freshly chopped 斤 (axe)

You may be thinking - why use this weird 亲 to represent a tree instead of just the simple, normal 木? The answer lies in phonetics. To clarify the word in question as much as possible, 辛 (spicy, bitter, pinyin xīn | xin1 ) was added to the tree part 木. Originally this 亲 kanji came to represent a hazelnut tree (pinyin zhēn | zhen1 ), and while it has now lost this original meaning (榛 is now the normal kanji for hazel) this "fruit-bearing tree" meaning stuck around for some of the other words this component still sticks around in (see 親 - parent, relative)

Fun fact 1: Did you know this kanji originally meant firewood? Both "firewood" and "new" were pronounced xīn | xin1 and could be communicated with the ideographic chopped tree, but the "new" meaning was presumably more popular in writing and stuck around - to differentiate, firewood is now written with the 艹 grass radical on top of it 薪 .