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I'm currently studying Kanji using a flashcard app on my computer. I do know
that there are two readings for each character, On and Kun. What I don't
understand, is when a Kanji has more than two readings. Three or four readings
I can remember, but once I get to more readings with say 10 readings, that
both confuses and concerns me. Say for the Kanji 上. I know its three On
readings: ジョウ ショウ, and シャン. but the Kun readings scare me. うえ、 -うえ、 うわ-、 かみ、
あ.げる、 -あ.げる、 あ.がる、 -あ.がる、 あ.がり、 -あ.がり、 のぼ.る、 のぼ.り、 のぼ.せる、 のぼ.す、 たてまつ.る. My
question is when do I use these readings, and do I need to know all of them?
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kanji readings multiple-readings
How do I remember a Kanji with more than two readings and when to use them
The linked post from ConMan in the comments ([Do we really need to remember
the kunyomi and onyomi reading of each
kanji?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/52178/do-we-really-need-
to-remember-the-kunyomi-and-onyomi-reading-of-each-kanji)) goes most of the
way to answering your questions. But, to directly answer them:

**When do you use these readings?** -- when the specific piece of vocabulary
that is being used demands it. That is to say, you can't know for sure unless
you know the piece of vocabulary in its context.

You might be able to _guess_ the reading if you have seen the character used
in another word (this applies more frequently to the on-yomi, as "kanji
compound" words are numerous and typically use the on-yomi of the given
character, e.g. knowing 両親（りょうしん） might enable me to guess the reading of 親 in
親友（しんゆう)), or perhaps if you know the reading of a certain component within
the character (e.g. the 師 in 教師（きょうし) shares a reading with its component 市).
But this approach is not foolproof, so it is not possible to abstract a
general rule which dictates when to use a given reading over another. It
simply comes down to the piece of vocabulary in context.

You might initially think this is absolutely crazy, but the same can be said
of English: knowing when 'lead' is read 'lead' and not 'lead', or 'read' is
read 'read' and not 'read' all comes down to context.

**Do you need to know all of them?** -- this obviously depends on your
personal goals and needs, but assuming these are within the realm of
normality... the short answer is 'no'; the long answer is 'It depends on the
character, and the specific reading you are talking about. Some of the
readings for characters with many many readings will likely be used more
rarely, and so you may well find your Japanese learning journey proceeds fine
without them. But, it might be unwise to not know all of the readings for
other characters where all readings occur in commonly used vocabulary.'

This answer perhaps obscures the main point, however, that how commonly used a
reading is depends on how commonly used the vocabulary (whether a singular
word or multiple words) is that uses the reading -- so you might be better to
reframe your thinking as: 'do I need to know this piece of vocabulary, or
not?' -- in doing so, you'll (hopefully) naturally build up a knowledge of the
readings of given characters that _actually matter to you_.

For what it's worth, I have never sat down to specifically learn readings of
individual characters myself. I try to learn the vocabulary that will help me
most, in a given sentence/context, and then hope that those pieces of
vocabulary stick, and that common readings of characters emerge. I'm not
saying that sitting down to try and learn a character's readings is totally
unproductive, but I personally think (and I think this is a widely held view)
that it's more effective to learn actual words that character readings in
isolation.
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