Why are there multiple katakana readings for a single kanji?


When I look at a _kanji_ word I see one, or multiple Hiragana pronunciations
(or should I call it _translation_?) - sometimes the pronunciations are for
different _kanji_ s, but that's not the question.

I've been reading [this article on
tofugu](http://www.tofugu.com/2010/03/23/the-types-of-kanji-in-japanese-
onyomi-vs-kunyomi/), but there are still some issues I'd like to ask about.

Sometimes I see more than 10 different _katakana_ readings for a single
_kanji_. Why is this?

Also, why are there some readings given as _katakana_ , even though (if I
understand correctly) _katakana_ is used for non-Japanese (Chinese?) words?




I don't exactly know what you mean by "translations", but kanji have different
readings, on'yomi readings (which are adapted from the original Chinese) and
kun'yomi readings (which have nothing to do with the Chinese reading, but map
a native Japanese word to a kanji).

To distinguish the "type" (on'yomi vs. kun'yomi) of these readings, the
on'yomi is usually given in katakana and the kun'yomi in hiragana. The idea is
loosely that katakana is also used for everything foreign, in this case the
(Japanified) Chinese reading.

The same kanji may have multiple on'yomi as kanji, together with their Chinese
reading, have been imported throughout the history of the Japanese language,
from different areas of China. (Then they are called kan'on, go'on, t­ōsōon.
See more about this
[here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/24174/apparently-
unrelated-%E9%9F%B3%E8%AA%AD%E3%81%BF).)

Note that the _readings_ only give a guide of reading this particular kanji in
a given context. They give the _pronunciation_ of the kanji and are not
"translations".

