目 (eye) and 自 (oneself) are separated by just one small stroke and as such prove to be tricky for beginners to remember. Both kanji are part of the JLPT3 and are taught in grade one and two at Japanese schools respectively.

My visual clue (or mnemonic) for remembering the kanji for eye (目) is to imagine an “eye” looking through open wooden blinds – the blinds being represented by the horizontal lines in the kanji.

So the horizontal lines in 目 are the wooden parts of the blind going across your window and you use one “eye” to look out through them.

For oneself (自) I imagine the top vertical stroke as a hand that is stuck up in the air when you are asked to identify yourself. So if you are in class and the teacher calls out your name and you stick your hand in the air, then your are identifying yourself or “oneself”.

Remember that as crazy as some of these mnemonics sound, they really work.

Example Usage

Kanji	Hiragana	Meaning
自営	じえい	independent; self-employed (自 – oneself, 営 – occupation, conduct business)
自国	じこく	one’s own country (自 – oneself, 国 – country)
自動	じどう	automatic (自 – oneself, 動 – move, motion, shift)
目先	めさき	near future; immediate; before one’s eyes (目 – eye, 先 – before, ahead, previous, future)
目測	もくそく	eye measurement; measure with eye (目 – eye,  測 – fathom, plan, measure)

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