The 214 traditional kanji radicals and their variants

Kanji are classified in kanji dictionaries according to their main components which are called radicals (roots) in English and 部首 (ぶしゅ) in Japanese. 部 (ぶ) means a group and 首 (しゅ) means a chief (head/neck). There are 214 historical radicals derived from the 18th century Kangxi dictionary.

Every kanji without exception only has one radical / 部首 (ぶしゅ). Each radical has a meaning(s) and lends its meaning(s) to the kanji of which it is part. Please take a look at the examples below. The right part of these three kanji is the same but the left part is different. The left part of these kanji is their radical. Note how each radical imparts its meaning to the kanji:

時:  The radical of this kanji is 日 (sun, day, time). The meaning of this kanji is “time.”
詩:  The radical of this kanji is 言 (words, to speak, say). The meaning of this kanji is “poetry, poem”.
持:  The radical of this kanji is 扌(hand). The meaning of this kanji is “to hold”.

For this reason it is very important to learn each kanji’s radical, as well as the meaning(s) of its radical. Not all 214 radicals are in use in current Japanese but you will soon become familiar with the most important ones and their variants.

There are no official Japanese names for radicals. But there are certain commonly-used names. That is why you will find differences in the Japanese names for the radicals on different websites and dictionaries.

Radicals are categorized into seven main groups according to their position within a kanji. Please note that some kanji are also radicals in and of themselves (such as 大, 日, 月). In those cases, the kanji and the radical are one and the same, and thus the position of the radical in the kanji is irrelevant. As a result they do not fall into any one of the seven categories.

へん (hen)radical left position へんRadicals on the left side of the kanji
つくり (tsukuri)radical right position つくりRadicals on the right
かんむり (kanmuri)radical top position かんむりRadicals on the top
あし (ashi)radical bottom position あしRadicals on the bottom
かまえ (kamae)

radical enclosed position くにがまえ
radical enclosed position ぎょうがまえ
radical enclosed position けいがまえ
radical enclosed position はこがまえ
radical enclosed position つつみがまえ
radical enclosed position きがまえ
radical enclosed position もんがまえ		Radicals which enclose the kanji
たれ (tare)radical top-left position たれRadicals which "hang down"
にょう (nyou)radical bottom-left position にょうRadicals which wrap around the bottom of a character

With our web application (https://app.kanjialive.com) you can search for kanji by radical name, stroke, meaning or position using the Advanced Search syntax (for example, rjn:miru or rjn:みる to search by Japanese name, rs:7 to search by stroke number, rem:see to search by English meaning, and rpos:かんむり or rpos:tsukuri to search for kanji by the position of the radical). Please consult our User Guide to learn about additional search options.

Fonts: Many of the radical characters shown on this list are not supported by the Japanese fonts widely used on Windows, OS X or Linux (some not even in Unicode). For these reasons we created Japanese Radicals, an open-source font derived from Source Han Sans with 60 custom glyphs which add support for every Japanese radical and variant. The font is freely available for private or commercial use.

Tip: By default, the radicals in the list below are presented in ascending stroke order. However you can also focus on a specific stroke number or look for individual radicals by using the “Search” field at the top of the table. Alternatively you can click on a column heading to sort the entire table by that heading. This is also a good way to focus on just the most important radicals. Clicking on the “a variant of..” link scrolls the page to the original version of that radical.

Tip: You can also use the table’s own search field to search/filter radicals by position. Use the radical positions table as a reference. For example, to view all radicals in the “hang down” position, type たれ or “tare” into the search field. To avoid ambiguities amongst the different kinds of “enclosed” radicals, search for these in hiragana. Placing your mouse pointer over any position symbol in the radical table reveals its Japanese name.

Tip: If you’d like a copy of the radicals tables in a format better suited for printing or if you’d like to re-use this data in another application, please visit our open-source repository on GitHub. Most of the language data and media files used in Kanji alive are freely available under a Creative Commons CC-BY license.

Stroke#RadicalPositionMeaningReadingNotesImportance
1⼀one, horizontal strokeいち
1⼁vertical strokeたてぼう
1⼂dotてん
1⼃diagonal sweeping strokeの
1かんむり Radical on the topdiagonal sweeping strokeのかんむりa variant of ⼃（の）
1⼄the secondおつ
1⺃the secondおつa variant of ⼄（おつ）
1⼅vertical stroke with a hookはねぼう
2⼆twoに
2⼇かんむり Radical on the toplid, topなべぶたImportant
2⼈personひと
2⺅へん Radical on the leftpersonにんべんa variant of ⼈（ひと）Important
2𠆢かんむり Radical on the toppersonひとやねa variant of ⼈（ひと）Important
2⼉あし Radical on the bottomhuman legsひとあしImportant
2⼊to enterいる
2⼋eightはち
2eightはちがしらa variant of ⼋（はち）
2⼌けいがまえ Radical which encloses the kanjito encloseけいがまえ
2⼍かんむり Radical on the topcover, crownわかんむりImportant
2⼎へん Radical on the lefticeにすい
2⼏つくり Radical on the righttableきにょう
2⺇かんむり Radical on the topwindかぜかんむりa variant of ⼏（きにょう）
2⼐にょう Radical which wraps around the bottomcontainer, open boxかんにょう
2⼑knife, swordかたな
2⺉つくり Radical on the rightknife, swordりっとうa variant of ⼑（かたな）Important
2⼒powerちから
2⼓つつみがまえ Radical which encloses the kanjito wrapつつみがまえ
2⼔つくり Radical on the rightspoonさじ
2⼕はこがまえ Radical which encloses the kanjiboxはこがまえ
2⼖はこがまえ Radical which encloses the kanjito conceal, hideかくしがまえ
2⼗tenじゅう
2⼘oracleぼく
2⼙つくり Radical on the rightstamp, sealふしづくり
2⼚たれ Radical which ‘hangs down’cliffがんだれImportant
2⼛private, Katakana Muむ
2⼜again, right handまた
3⼝mouthくち
3へん Radical on the leftmouthくちへんa variant of ⼝（くち）Important
3⼞くにがまえ Radical which encloses the kanjiborder, territorial boundariesくにがまえImportant
3⼟earthつち
3へん Radical on the leftearthつちへんa variant of ⼟（つち）Important
3⼠man, scholar, samuraiさむらい
3かんむり Radical on the topman, scholar, samuraiさむらいかんむりa variant of ⼠（さむらい）
3⼡to followのまた
3⼢あし Radical on the bottomto go slowlyなつあし
3⼣eveningゆうべ
3⼤large, bigだい
3⼥womanおんな
3へん Radical on the leftwomanおんなへんa variant of ⼥（おんな）Important
3⼦child, sonこ
3へん Radical on the leftchild, sonこへんa variant of ⼦（こ）Important
3⼧かんむり Radical on the toproof, houseうかんむりImportant
3⼨inch, (2.25 cm)すん
3つくり Radical on the rightinch, (2.25 cm)すんづくりa variant of ⼨（すん）
3⼩smallしょう
3⺌かんむり Radical on the topsmallしょうかんむりa variant of ⼩（しょう）
3⺐つくり Radical on the rightlame legだいのまげあし
3⼫たれ Radical which ‘hangs down’corpse, awningしかばね
3⼬sproutくさのめ
3⼭mountainやま
3へん Radical on the leftmountainやまへんa variant of ⼭（やま）
3かんむり Radical on the topmountainやまかんむりa variant of ⼭（やま）
3⼮winding riverまがりがわ
3川riverさんぼんがわa variant of ⼮（まがりがわ）
3⼯work, carpenter, skillたくみ
3へん Radical on the leftwork, carpenter, skillたくみへんa variant of ⼯（たくみ）
3⼰selfおのれ
3⼱clothはば
3へん Radical on the leftclothはばへんa variant of ⼱（はば）
3⼲to dry, shieldかん
3⺓young, slightいとがしら
3⼴たれ Radical which ‘hangs down’slanting roofまだれImportant
3⼵にょう Radical which wraps around the bottomto move, stretchえんにょう
3⼶あし Radical on the bottomfolded handsにじゅうあし
3⼷javelinいぐるみ
3⼸bow（in archery）ゆみ
3へん Radical on the leftbow（in archery）ゆみへんa variant of ⼸（ゆみ）
3⼹pig’s headけいがしら
3⺕pig’s headけいがしらa variant of ⼹（けいがしら）
3⺔pig’s headけいがしらa variant of ⼹（けいがしら）
3⼺つくり Radical on the righthair-style, light raysさんづくり
3⼻へん Radical on the leftstep, stride, street, to goぎょうにんべんImportant
3⺾かんむり Radical on the topgrassくさかんむりa variant of ⾋（くさ）Important
3⻌にょう Radical which wraps around the bottomroad, walk, to advanceしんにょうa variant of ⾡（しんにょう）Important
3⻏つくり Radical on the rightvillage, country, cityおおざとa variant of ⾢（むら）Important
3⻖へん Radical on the lefthill, moundこざとへんa variant of ⾩（こざと）Important
3⺍かんむり Radical on the topKatakana Tsuつ
3⺖へん Radical on the leftheart, mind, spiritりっしんべんa variant of ⼼（こころ）Important
3⺘へん Radical on the lefthandてへんa variant of ⼿（て）Important
3⺡へん Radical on the leftwaterさんずいa variant of ⽔（みず）Important
3⺨へん Radical on the leftbeastけものへんa variant of ⽝（いぬ）Important
4⼼heart, mind, spiritこころ
4⺗あし Radical on the bottomheart, mind, spiritしたごころa variant of ⼼（こころ）
4⼽spear, weaponほこ
4⼾doorと
4たれ Radical which ‘hangs down’doorとだれa variant of ⼾（と）
4⼿handて
4⽀branchしにょう
4⽁つくり Radical on the rightactivity, to strike, hitぼくづくり
4⺙つくり Radical on the rightactivity, to strike, hitぼくづくりa variant of ⽁（ぼくづくり） Important
4⽂literature, lettersぶん
4⽃つくり Radical on the rightbig dipper, ladle, 18 litersますづくり
4⽄つくり Radical on the rightaxeおのづくり
4⽅direction, flagほう
4へん Radical on the leftdirection, flagほうへんa variant of ⽅（ほう）
4⽆notむにょう
4⽇sun, day, timeひ
4へん Radical on the leftsun, day, timeひへんa variant of ⽇（ひ）Important
4⽈to sayひらび
4⽉moon, month, periodつき
4⺝へん Radical on the leftmoon, month, periodつきへんa variant of ⽉（つき）
4meat, fleshにくづきa variant of ⾁（にく）Important
4⽊tree, woodき
4へん Radical on the lefttree, woodきへんa variant of ⽊（き）Important
4⽋to lack, yawnあくび
4⽌to stopとめる
4⽍death & dying, to decomposeがつ
4へん Radical on the leftdeath & dying, to decomposeがつへんa variant of ⽍（がつ）
4⽎つくり Radical on the rightlance shaft, actionるまた
4⽏not, motherなかれ
4⽐to compareくらべる
4⽑hairけ
4⽒family, clanうじ
4⽓きがまえ Radical which encloses the kanjisteam, airきがまえ
4⽔waterみず
4⽕fireひ
4へん Radical on the leftfireひへんa variant of ⽕（ひ）Important
4⺣あし Radical on the bottomfireれっかa variant of ⽕（ひ）Important
4⽖claw, nailつめ
4⺤かんむり Radical on the topclaw, nailつめかんむりa variant of ⽖（つめ）
4爫かんむり Radical on the topclaw, nailつめかんむりa variant of ⽖（つめ）
4⽗fatherちち
4⽘to mixこう
4⽙へん Radical on the leftsplit woodしょうへん
4⽚split woodかた
4へん Radical on the leftsplit woodかたへんa variant of ⽚（かた）
4fang, canine toothきば
4⽜cowうし
4へん Radical on the leftcowうしへんa variant of ⽜（うし）
4⽝dogいぬ
4へん Radical on the leftjewelry, jeweled kingおうへんa variant of ⽟（たま）Important
4⺭へん Radical on the leftaltar, festival, religious serviceしめすへんa variant of ⽰（しめす）Important
4㓁netあみがしらa variant of ⽹（あみ）
4⺹かんむり Radical on the topold, old-ageおいかんむりa variant of ⽼（おいかんむり）
5⽞darknessげん
5⽟jewelryたま
5melonうり
5⽡tileかわら
5⽢sweetあまい
5⽣birth, to be born, liveうまれる
5⽤to useもちいる
5⽥rice paddyた
5へん Radical on the leftrice paddyたへんa variant of ⽥（た）
5⽦bolt of clothひき
5⺪へん Radical on the leftbolt of clothひきへんa variant of ⽦（ひき）
5⽧たれ Radical which ‘hangs down’sicknessやまいだれImportant
5⽨かんむり Radical on the topoutspread legs, departureはつがしら
5⽩whiteしろ
5へん Radical on the leftwhiteはくへんa variant of ⽩（しろ）
5⽪skin, hideけがわ
5⽫plate, bowlさら
5⽬eyeめ
5へん Radical on the lefteyeめへんa variant of ⽬（め）Important
5かんむり Radical on the topeyeよこめa variant of ⽬（め）
5⽭halberdほこ
5へん Radical on the lefthalberdほこへんa variant of ⽭（ほこ）
5⽮arrowや
5へん Radical on the leftarrowやへんa variant of ⽮（や）
5⽯stoneいし
5へん Radical on the leftstoneいしへんa variant of ⽯（いし）
5⽰altar, festival, religious serviceしめす
5⽱footprintじゅうのあし
5⽲へん Radical on the leftgrainのぎへんImportant
5⽳hole, caveあな
5かんむり Radical on the tophole, caveあなかんむりa variant of ⽳（あな）Important
5⽴to standたつ
5へん Radical on the leftto standたつへんa variant of ⽴（たつ）
5fang, canine toothきばa variant of （きば）
5へん Radical on the leftfang, canine toothきばへんa variant of ⽛（きば）
5氺waterしたみずa variant of ⽔（みず）
5⺫かんむり Radical on the topnetあみがしらa variant of ⽹（あみ）
5𦉰netあみがしらa variant of ⽹（あみ）
5⻂へん Radical on the leftclothingころもへんa variant of ⾐（ころも）Important
5⺛notむにょうa variant of ⽆（むにょう）
6⽵bambooたけ
6⺮かんむり Radical on the topbambooたけかんむりa variant of ⽵（たけ）Important
6⽶riceこめ
6へん Radical on the leftriceこめへんa variant of ⽶（こめ）Important
6⽷threadいと
6へん Radical on the leftthreadいとへんa variant of ⽷（いと）Important
6⽸earthen jarみずがめ
6⽹netあみめ
6⽺sheepひつじ
6⺷sheepひつじa variant of ⽺（ひつじ）
6羽feather, wingはね
6⽻feather, wingはねa variant of 羽（はね）
6⽼old, old-ageおいかんむり
6⽽and alsoしこうして
6⽾へん Radical on the leftplowらいすき
6⽿earみみ
6へん Radical on the leftearみみへんa variant of ⽿（みみ）
6⾀writing brushふでづくり
6⾁flesh, meatにく
6⾂retainer, ministerしん
6⾃selfみずから
6⾄to arrive, reachいたる
6へん Radical on the leftto arrive, reachいたるへんa variant of ⾄（いたる）
6⾅mortar, quernうす
6⾆tongueした
6⾇contrary, to errまいあし
6⾈ship, boatふね
6へん Radical on the leftship, boatふねへんa variant of ⾈（ふね）
6⾉boundaryこん
6⾊colorいろ
6⾋grass, plantくさ
6⾌かんむり Radical on the toptigerとらがしら
6⾍worm, insect, bugむし
6へん Radical on the leftworm, insect, bugむしへんa variant of ⾍（むし）Important
6⾎bloodち
6⾏ぎょうがまえ Radical which encloses the kanjito goぎょうがまえImportant
6⾐clothingころも
6⾑cover, westにし
6⻃cover, westにしa variant of ⾑（にし）
6⽠melonうりa variant of ⽠（うり）
7⾒to seeみる
7⾓horn, cornerつの
7へん Radical on the lefthorn, cornerつのへんa variant of ⾓（つの）
7⾔words, to speak, sayげん
7へん Radical on the leftwords, to speak, sayごんべんa variant of ⾔（げん）Important
7⾕valleyたに
7へん Radical on the leftvalleyたにへんa variant of ⾕（たに）
7⾖beanまめ
7へん Radical on the leftbeanまめへんa variant of ⾖（まめ）
7⾗pigいのこ
7⾘へん Radical on the leftbadgerむじなへん
7⾙shell, property, wealthかい
7へん Radical on the leftshell, property, wealthかいへんa variant of ⾙（かい）Important
7⾚redあか
7⾛to runはしる
7にょう Radical which wraps around the bottomto runそうにょうa variant of ⾛（はしる）Important
7⾜foot, legあし
7⻊へん Radical on the leftfoot, legあしへんa variant of ⾜（あし）Important
7⾝bodyみ
7へん Radical on the leftbodyみへんa variant of ⾝（み）
7⾞vehicle, wheel, carくるま
7へん Radical on the leftvehicle, wheel, carくるまへんa variant of ⾞（くるま）Important
7⾟bitterからい
7⾠Fifth zodiac sign, 7–9 A.M.しんのたつ
7⾡to advance, move aheadしんにょう
7⾢communityむら
7⾣sake jar, birdひよみのとり
7へん Radical on the leftsake jar, birdとりへんa variant of ⾣（ひよみのとり）
7⾤to separateのごめ
7へん Radical on the leftto separateのごめへんa variant of ⾤（のごめ）
7⾥village, (3.93 km)さと
7へん Radical on the leftvillage, (3.93 km)さとへんa variant of ⾥（さと）
7⾂retainer, ministerしんa variant of ⾂（しん）
7contrary, to errまいあしa variant of ⾇（まいあし）
7⻨wheatむぎa variant of ⿆（むぎ）
8⾦metal, gold, mineralかね
8へん Radical on the leftmetal, gold, mineralかねへんa variant of ⾦（かね）Important
8⻑longながい
8⾨もんがまえ Radical which encloses the kanjigate, doorもんがまえImportant
8⾩hillこざと
8⾪つくり Radical on the rightto captureれいづくり
8⾫small birdふるとり
8⾬rainあめ
8⻗かんむり Radical on the toprainあめかんむりa variant of ⾬（あめ）Important
8⾭blue, greenあお
8⻘blue, greenあおa variant of ⾭（あお）
8⾮wrong, non-あらず
8⻟へん Radical on the leftfood, to eatしょくへんa variant of ⾷（しょく）
8⻫alikeせいa variant of ⿑（せい）
9⾯face, surfaceめん
9⾰leatherつくりがわ
9leatherなめしがわ
9⾲leekにら
9⾳sound, noiseおと
9⾴つくり Radical on the righthead, pageおおがいImportant
9⾵windかぜ
9⾶to flyとぶ
9⾷food, to eatしょく
9⾸headくび
9⾹scentかおり
10⾺horseうま
10へん Radical on the lefthorseうまへんa variant of ⾺（うま）
10⾻boneほね
10へん Radical on the leftboneほねへんa variant of ⾻（ほね）
10⾼highたかい
10⾽かんむり Radical on the toplong hairかみかんむり
10⾾fightingたたかいがまえ
10⾿herbsにおいざけ
10⿀tripodれき
10⿁demonおに
10⾱leatherなめしがわa variant of （なめしがわ）
11⿂fishうお
11へん Radical on the leftfishうおへんa variant of ⿂（うお）Important
11⿃birdとり
11⿄saltしお
11⿅deerしか
11⿆wheatむぎ
11⿇hempあさ
11かんむり Radical on the tophempあさかんむりa variant of ⿇（あさ）
11⻩yellowきa variant of ⿈（き）
11黒blackくろa variant of ⿊（くろ）
11⻲turtleかめa variant of ⿔（かめ）
12⿈yellowき
12⿉milletきび
12⿊blackくろ
12⿋embroiderぬいとり
12⻭toothはa variant of ⿒（は）
13⿌frogかえる
13⿍tripodかなえ
13⿎drumつづみ
13⿏rat, mouseねずみ
14⿐noseはな
14⿑alikeせい
15⿒toothは
16⿓dragonりゅう
16⿔turtleかめ
17⿕fluteやく

References:

The English meanings of each radical in Kanji alive are based on Kanji & Kana by Wolfgang Hadamitzky & Mark Spahn, (1981), Tuttle Publishing with additional reference to Basic Kanji by Matsuo Soga & Michio Yusa (1989), Taishūkan, and Andrew N. Nelson, The Original Modern Reader’s Japanese-English Character Dictionary: Classic Edition, 2nd. ed. (1974), Tuttle Publishing. The Japanese names for the radicals are based on『講談社カラー版日本語大辞典』（第一版）1989, 講談社.

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139 thoughts on “The 214 traditional kanji radicals and their variants”

    1. Charlotte

      No Kidding, I have been trying to find a website that lists all the makings, and meanings of Kanji. I have got a basic understanding of hiragana and katakana, but to be able to understand, and read Japanese literature was my true goal… Now I merely have to copy and learn each stroke, and its meaning, and I’ll be set.

      Reply ↓
  2. iji

    I don’t understand where you use 5 strokes for water. In Kanji Alive Web Interface, water has 4 strokes.
    氺 water したみず 4 5

    Reply ↓
    1. hlory

      Hi iji, thank you for your note. “shitamizu” is a variant of “mizu” so in the Kangxi dictionary “shitamizu” was listed under 4 strokes. However, when you count the strokes of “shitamizu”, there are 5 strokes so we decided to list it in Kanji alive under 5 strokes.

      Reply ↓
      1. iji

        my Windows XP & browsers can’t display some of the radicals (such as ひとやね, かぜ a.s.o.).
        is it a font-related problem?

        Reply ↓
        1. Arno Bosse

          Hi iji, yes, this is a font related problem. Unfortunately most Japanese fonts do not include enough glyphs (graphical representations of characters) to cover all the radical variants. I can offer two suggestions:

          The first is to switch to Microsoft’s Meiryo font to show Japanese on the web by following these simple instructions on our website. This will improve the readability of all Japanese text on any website and should also provide support for more radical glyphs. However, there will still be a few radicals which can’t be displayed in Meiryo either.

          To address this, you could install the free Mplus outline fonts. These will definitely include support for the radicals used in Kanji alive. We didn’t provide instructions for doing this on our website since the process is potentially a little more complicated but if you’re interested in using Mplus we would be more than happy to assist you.

          Reply ↓
          1. iji

            Thank you very much. I wasn’t aware of the Meiryo font. I did have problems with readability and I was zooming a lot most of the time :)

            As for the M+ font, I don’t think it’s worth the trouble for me at this point in time.

  3. PheDz

    Hi, What do you think is the suggested writing to use, is it Kanji or Hiragana? I think it’s hard to learn the Kanji. But I want to learn Nihon-go. :)

    Reply ↓
    1. hlory

      Hi PheDz,

      There are three writing systems in Japanese: Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. Beginners of the Japanese language always learn how to read and write Hiragana and Katakana because they are phonetic symbols. The readings of kanji are sometimes written in Hiragana along with the kanji. So once you learn how to read Hiragana, you can read any Japanese sentences even though you don’t know the meaning of them. For example, 明日(あした)、私(わたし)は日本(にほん)へ行(い)きます。(Ashita watashi wa nihon he ikimasu. I am going to Japan tomorrow) So you need to learn Hiragana first.

      However, you will need to learn kanji eventually because kanji are very useful to grasp the meaning of words. Even just learning to recognize kanji is very helpful for you to understand the Japanese language.

      For example, please take a look at this sentence. はしのはしではしをかう。(Hashi no hashi de hashi o kau) This sentence is written in Hiragana only. You can see “はし” three times in this sentence. There are many different words with the same pronunciation in Japanese. Each はし has a different meaning. But when you see the sentence in Hiragana, you can’t know which meaning the words in Hiragana have. However, when this sentence is written in kanji and Hiragana, the meanings are clear. 橋の端で箸を買う。橋 （はし hashi）means a bridge, 端 （はし hashi）means an end or edge and 箸 (はし hashi) means chopsticks. The meaning of the sentence is “(I am going to) buy chopsticks at the end of a bridge.”

      I hope you can understand how important learning kanji is for the study of Japanese. Each kanji has a story behind it. If you learn those stories through radicals and mnemonic hints, the study of kanji will become enjoyable for you. I hope Kanji alive will help to lead you effectively on this fun journey!

      Reply ↓
      1. Steve P

        That’s a great response! I am taking an beginning japanese course now, and I am about 98% confident in my hiragana (there’s a few that I keep getting mixed up) 50% of my katakana.

        I understand that there are multiple meanings to hashi as it is written in hiragana. But, doesn’t this also apply to how your example sentence is spoken, since hiragana is just a way to transcribe sounds?

        Reply ↓
        1. Rehn

          I think this is actually a very valid point and it’s not necessary to the understanding of Kanji. Of course we have to understand how to read Kanji but if someone were to say this sentence aloud how would you understand them? Or would you simply rephrase it to be better understood?

          Reply ↓
          1. Harumi Lory Post author

            Hi Rehn, I’m very sorry we didn’t respond to your comment in a timely manner – it somehow slipped our attention.

            When you read sentences in Japanese, a knowledge of kanji is helpful for grasping the meaning of words easily. When you hear or speak the example sentence (hashi no hashi de hashi o kau), the intonation of “hashi” lets you know the meaning of each “hashi”, and the particles help you understand the meaning of the sentence. So it is important for learners of Japanese to learn all four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) at the same time.

      2. Mariam

        Wow, this is literally the best answer I have ever read about the importance of the Kanji characters! Thanks so much for your help, It was really useful & enjoyable to read your comment. Best Regards, hlory san :)

        Reply ↓
  4. Jac k

    I’m wondering why the list is divided in this odd way, with the stroke numbers 1-12, and then starting again at 1 and going to 11.

    Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse

      Hi Jac,

      Did you mean the list of kanji you get following a search in the Kanji alive web app? I only ask because you posted this question on the page with the list of 214 traditional radicals. I am assuming you meant the list of kanji shown in the Kanji alive web app after a search.

      Here, the results of your searches can be viewed in three different ways. Let’s assume, as in your example, some search you entered matched a group of kanji with strokes numbers between 1 and 12. Initially, these are shown sorted by kanji stroke number in ascending order, 1-12. Click once on the “Sort” button near the top of the web app’s window and you’ll now see the same set of kanji grouped by radical stroke number (i.e. the radicals found in the kanji matching the initial search term). If more than one kanji share a radical, then these are sorted again by their kanji stroke number. Click on the “Sort” button again, and you’ll see the same kanji grouped by their kanji stroke number. If several kanji share the same stroke number, these are then sorted again their radical stroke number. Click on “Sort” one more time and you’ll return to the initial (ungrouped) sort order, i.e. by kanji stroke number only. These three options are described more fully in the User Guide.

      I hope this helps make sense of what you’re seeing. If it does not, please email us at kanjialive@gmail.com with a description of the search term you used to produce your earlier results and we’ll try to make sense of what’s going on.

      Reply ↓
  5. Iuri

    Hi, thanks for posting this, I was looking for a place to to provide me with reference for studying the kanji radicals, however, I don’t seem to find the stroke order of these radicals, where could I find the stroke order?

    Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse

      Hi Iuri, did you mean #1 the (stroke) order by which radicals are traditionally sorted, or #2 the actual order of written strokes in a radical itself? For the former, the default order in which the radicals are presented on this page is the same as their traditional order of representation, i.e. on the basis of their strokes counts.

      However, I think you probably meant #2. I’m not aware of an online resource with this information, though I am confident one exists. Of course, in the case of radicals which are also kanji, you can lookup their kanji stroke using e.g. our own web app, http://app.kanjialive.com. Moreover, since each kanji, precisely speaking, only contains exactly one radical, if you know any kanji which uses this radical, you can watch the stroke order of the whole kanji and thus discover the stroke order of the radical within it. Please see the introduction to this page for different ways to search for kanji by radical using the Kanji alive web app. I hope this helps!

      Reply ↓
  6. Iuri

    Thanks for your reply, and sorry for taking so long to answer, yes, I meant #2, I’m going to do what you suggested and look up for kanjis that have the radicals that I’m looking for, in order to get their stroke order, again, thanks!

    Reply ↓
  7. Laeark

    Hi, i just want to tell to the author that i find this page the most useful and best explained about the japanese radicals ( ´・ω・)つ旦.

    Reply ↓
  8. スミス

    Just finished Elementary Japanese II at the University of Tennessee. I only have about a hundred kanji, so far, but I am pretty good at it…so far:) This is a very helpful site… 先生 uses it often. Working with various sources actually….White Rabbit Press Kanji Flash Card (Series 2, Vol. 1 and 2), Graded Reader 1 (Vol. 1,2 , and 3), Genki I and II textbooks and workbooks), Genki Look-and-Learn Kanji, etc. It’s no more of a struggle than trying to remember the vocabulary, particles, the many conjugations of verbs, adjectives, nouns, etc…not to the sentence forms!! And the listening!! Wow…I’ve given up wondering why the sounds of the language don’t match the romaji….just go with the flow…. しち　as stigi (pardon my improve) or ひと (人) as shtoo (again, pardon the improve. Sorry, getting off on a lot of tangents! Wonderful and VERY useful site!!!

    Reply ↓
  9. Leena

    Hi, I am just a beginner in Japanese. For the first months I’ve learned both Hiragana and Katakana and the basics in speaking but I think now it’s the time for me to finally learn kanji ;) I think this site will be very useful for me but I have a question. I’d like to learn all the radicals that are here before going any further but I’m confused about the on and kun-readings I’ve heard of. So here are given only the kun-readings? shouldn’t we learn them both with one kanji or not?

    Reply ↓
    1. Kanji alive

      Hi Leena, radicals don’t have On and Kun readings as such. They do have commonly used names or nicknames which are written in hiragana. The exception to this are the handful of radicals which are simultaneously also kanji. These kanji do have On and Kun readings.

      Especially as a beginner, it’s really not necessary for you to learn all of the radicals. Focus instead on the ones marked “Important” on http://kanjialive.com/214-traditional-kanji-radicals/ These radicals will be vital for your continued study of kanji.

      Lastly, even if you are learning kanji by yourself, it’s usually still a good idea to help organize your course of studies with the help of a good textbook. To see which textbooks are supported by Kanji alive, please visit http://kanjialive.com/supported-textbooks/

      Reply ↓
  10. Diana

    Hi! I simply wanted to thank you!! It’s not a great contribution, but your site is so complete, useful and generous that I had to say it. :)

    Reply ↓
  11. LaVieQ

    Hi,

    Thanks for taking the time to put together all this radical information. Very useful.

    One question: In the first sentence, you say that the 首 in 部首 means “chief”. Doesn’t it mean “neck”? When I checked the meaning on jisho.org, didn’t see alternate meaning of “chief”. Of course, “neck” is a “chief” part of the body, and, in that sense it’s meaningful. :-)

    LVQ

    Reply ↓
    1. Kanji alive

      Hi LVQ, both Jisho.org and The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary, by Jack Halpern, list the kanji 首 with possible meanings of “neck”, “head” and “leader/chief.” That’s why on our web page we wrote that 首 in 部首 means “chief.” However, to avoid possible, we’ve modified the text to say 首 as used in 部首 means “chief (head/neck)”. Thank you for pointing it out.

      Reply ↓
  12. Maddy

    Hi! I am a high-school student who has been studying Japanese Language for almost 6 years but I only started learning Kanji about 3 years ago. I found this site very helpful and have shared it with my teacher. She also found it to be very accurate and helpful. Thank you for expanding my understanding of Kanji Radicals!

    Reply ↓
  13. Lucija

    I’m just starting to learn kanji and this seems really useful.
    I just have one question…What exactly are kanji radical readings? I understand that kanji have Kun’yomi and On’yomi readings, but what about radicals?

    Reply ↓
    1. Kanji alive

      Radicals don’t have readings like kanji (please re-read the introduction to the 214 traditional radicals page). Learn their common names (nicknames) in hiragana so you can refer to them as well as their meanings, positions and stroke numbers so that you can recognize them in kanji.

      Reply ↓
  15. Pamela

    I am a Nigerian Otaku who is fascinated by Japan. And I want to watch my anime without having to read the subtitles, i mean the english dubbed versions are annoying in a way. Thank you for this Radicals, it is easy to understand.

    Reply ↓
  16. Cordero

    I noticed there are two radicals for “retainer” [しん], but they look exactly the same to me. However, one is said to be 6 strokes long and the other is 7 strokes long. I don’t see a way of writing this radical with just 6 strokes, though.

    Reply ↓
    1. Kanji alive

      Hi Cordero, you are right that there is no difference, visually, between the two. The old (Tenshotai) form of this radical originally required 6 strokes to complete. Later, in Japan, the radical came to be drawn with 7 strokes. Since we wanted to offer a full list of all radicals and variants we included both versions. You can see the difference between drawing 臣 with 6 or with 7 strokes on its Wiktionary page: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/臣

      Reply ↓
      1. Cordero

        Thank you very much. I’ll ckeck it out. This site is amazing, by the way; I’ve been visiting it from a couple of months now, and I find your web application really useful. Congratulations for such a great job.

        Reply ↓
  17. Kumori Neko

    First off, lemme say thank u very much for your effort in making this list. I find it to be very conclusive and helpful and this is exactly what I was looking for :D but i do have a question though. Sometimes the readings are different from what i know, for example child you put read as ni, but when i type that hiragana in my keyboard the radical doesn’t show up. But if i type the hiragana kodomo, the radical does show up. I noticed this for a few of the radicals. How does this work? Thank u in advance :)

    Reply ↓
    1. Harumi Lory

      Dear Kumori Neko san,

      Thank you very much for your email. I am glad to hear that Kanji alive is helpful for your study.

      To response to your email, I would like to ask you some questions. Are you talking about the radical 子? Its Japanese name is “こ (ko)”, not “に (ni)”. When the radical is used on the left side of a kanji, its Japanese name is “こへん (kohen)”. Please go to http://kanjialive.com/214-traditional-kanji-radicals/ and search for “child” using the search field at the top right of the table to see both forms.

      You wrote, “But if ​I ​type the hiragana kodomo​, the radical does show up.” ​Did you type “こども” in the search field on http://kanjialive.com/214-traditional-kanji-radicals/?​ ​ If ​you did type​ こども there, then there should not appear any result, because it is not ​correct​. How did you look for the radical 子​ (こ）​?

      こども (the word for “child”) ​​​is written with two kanji: 子供. Whether it is a radical or a kanji, ​whenever ​子 ​is used by itself, it is pronounced ​”こ (ko)” only​. ​

      It is true that there are several different Japanese names for each radical. In Kanji alive, the Japanese names for the radicals are based on 『講談社カラー版日本語大辞典』（第一版）1989, 講談社. Please see the references at the bottom of our 214 radicals web page:

      References: The English meanings of each radical in Kanji alive are based on Kanji & Kana by Wolfgang Hadamitzky & Mark Spahn, (1981), Tuttle Publishing with additional reference to Basic Kanji by Matsuo Soga & Michio Yusa (1989), Taishūkan, and Andrew N. Nelson, The Original Modern Reader’s Japanese-English Character Dictionary: Classic Edition, 2nd. ed. (1974), Tuttle Publishing. The Japanese names for the radicals are based on『講談社カラー版日本語大辞典』（第一版）1989, 講談社.

      If you have any more questions, please feel free to email us any time.

      Best,
      Harumi Lory
      Kanji alive team

      Reply ↓
  18. Emma

    Is it important to know which of the seven categories a kanji radical belongs to? Should i memorize the seven categories and which kanji go in which categories? Im just starting to learn kanji. thank you!

    Reply ↓
    1. Kanji alive

      Dear Emma,

      Thank you very much for your email.

      It is helpful to know the seven main groups according to their position within a kanji but you don’t need to memorize them. When you memorize each kanji, it is more important to learn what radical is used for each kanji. And please use the Hint to help you memorize how the kanji is composed.

      If you have any more questions, please email us any time.

      Best,
      Harumi Lory
      Kanji alive team

      ps. The next version of Kanji alive will allow you to search for kanji by the type of position of their radicals.

      Reply ↓
  19. James

    Hi, I am a novice so please forgive me if this is a dumb question, but I cannot seem to find the following Radicals in your list:

    2-stroke
    九
    マ
    乃

    3-stroke
    亡
    也
    及

    and maybe others. These radicals appear in Jisho’s list of radicals (http://jisho.org/#radical). Just wondering why that is.

    Reply ↓
    1. Kanji alive

      Dear James,

      Thank you for your email.

      We listed the 214 radicals based on the Kangxi Dictionary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangxi_Dictionary. According to the Kangxi Dictionary, 九、マ、乃、亡、也、及 are not radicals. That’s why you can’t find them in Kanji alive.

      On https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_Japanese_kanji_radicals,, 九、マ、乃、亡、也、及 are listed as radicals under “Kanji radicals not recognized by Kangxi”. However, they are not taught as radicals in Japanese schools and many Japanese kanji dictionaries don’t list them as radicals.

      In fact, 九、マ、乃、亡、也、及 have their own radicals according to the Kangxi Dictionary.
      The radical of 九 is 乙 (otsu).
      The radical of 乃 is 丿(no).
      The radical of 亡 is 亠 (nabebuta).
      The radical of 也 is 乚 (otsu).
      The radical of 及 is 又 (mata).
      マ is a Katakana. It should be ム (mu) as a radical.

      I think it would be better to learn the basic 214 radicals based on the Kangxi Dictionary for your study.

      If you have any more questions, please email us again.

      Best regards,
      Harumi Lory
      Kanji alive team

      Reply ↓
      1. iji

        Is there a reason why there are two radicals not marked as variants: ⺇ (kazekanmuri) and ⺍ (katakana tsu)? This raises the number of radicals to 216.

        Reply ↓
        1. Arno Bosse Post author

          ⺇ (kazekanmuri) is a variant of ⼏ (kinyou, table) which we neglected to note in our table. Thank you for drawing this to our attention! It’s been corrected on the radicals page. ⺍ (katakana tsu) is a newly added radical which is why it isn’t included in the traditional list of 214 Kangxi radicals.

          Reply ↓
          1. Soe

            ⺍ is a variant of ⼩ . ⺌ is another variant of 尚 (nao, esteem), which is also a variant of ⼩ (small). Also, seen in this way, you can derive some possible meaning, like esteem or small. Both variants, ⺍ and ⺌, are usually seen at the top or above another kanji versus below. Examples- 学 and 党.

            James does bring up a legitimate point, where Kanji Alive appears to be strict Japanese traditionalists about what radicals to include, but then makes exceptions. Related to that, there is a greater point about graphemes, kanji used like radicals ( 九, 五, and many more), hyougai, and hanzi.

            The radicals are used as a reference, but don’t explain each part of the kanji. This is where many foreign students learning Japanese, and even sometimes native Japanese, can have issues. The Japanese kanji are derived from the Chinese hanzi. With the Chinese hanzi, each element of the character often has a meaning, and beyond that of just the radical. In various cases, the radical has no meaning, and is just a description. However, parts of the Chinese hanzi do have a meaning, which in many cases relates to the meaning of the total character.

            I will explain my point. Look at this kanji- 掃 it means sweep (ha.ku, so.ji). Many Japanese and foreign Japanese students would break this kanji down into the following radicals 手⼹冖巾. The result of breaking down kanji in this way makes remembering and understanding kanji more difficult. For native Japanese, it might be more tolerable, because of many years of schooling and rote memorization. This is something many adult foreigner students of Japanese won’t have. Another way to break down this kanji is- 扌帚. The kanji radical on the left means hand, and the Chinese hanzi on the right means broom. Together, hand + broom = sweep. A lot easier to understand.

      2. Sha

        I’ve been studying kanji and Japanese for ages and you just blew my mind with “The radical of 九 is 乙 (otsu).”

        Hahaha!

        Reply ↓
        1. Kairaku_no_Kamen Sensei

          Right on! I was wondering why i couldn’t understand some of the radicals i was reading! Looks like i got a lot more learning to do. Lol

          Reply ↓
  21. Kaneki Ken

    So, Kanji is a combination of two or more radicals??
    By the way, this website is AMAZING! So much better that any other Kanji website.

    Reply ↓
      1. Kaneki Ken

        Thank you very much! About Kanji, which books are the best for learning them?
        I’m terribly sorry for disturbing you with questions.
        Thank you!

        Reply ↓
        1. Arno Bosse Post author

          We hesitate to make an explicit textbook recommendation for independent learners since so much depends on your individual preferences and learning goals. And of course if you’re learning kanji at a school or college etc. then you should follow the recommendations of your instructor. That being said, as a starting point, you may wish to look at the Genki series, which we described in this response to a question very similar to your own.

          Reply ↓
  22. Mariam

    Hello, I’m wondering if there’s any visual difference between the radical ⼝ (くち) and the radical ⼞ (くにがまえ). I understand that their meanings are different. Thank you.

    Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse Post author

      Hello Mariam,

      Thank you for your great question and please excuse this late response. Here’s the reply I got from Sensei Lory: ‘When you see the typefaces of these two radicals, they look almost alike. However, when we write them by hand, they should be written in two different ways. For “kunigamae”, we usually write the vertical lines straight. So the two horizontal lines are almost the same length. And the vertical lines of “kunigamae” are longer than those of “kuchi”. For “kuchi”, we usually write the vertical line on the left slightly diagonal towards the right and the vertical line on the right slightly diagonal to the left. So the top horizontal line is longer than the one on the bottom.’ Hope this helps!

      Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse Post author

      Hi Victor, you’re very welcome to copy and re-use all of the language data and media files used to create Kanji alive (for example, to create your own Anki sets) as long as you give proper credit and include a reference to the license used to share this data. You’ll find our language and media files on https://github.com/kanjialive/

      Reply ↓
  24. Everett Flores

    Some have said that the key to learning kanji is to learn the radicals. Is this true? And even if it is, wouldn’t it also be true that the stroke order of the radicals is just as important? Where can I learn the stroke order for the radicals? Thank you for this site, your answers, and your time.

    Reply ↓
    1. Harumi Lory

      Dear Everett,

      Thank you for your email.

      It is true that learning radicals is important to learn kanji because each radical has meaning. But when it comes to writing the radicals, I think it is best to practice writing them as integral parts of the kanji in which they are contained.

      If you are learning kanji on your own, you can search kanji by radical (e.g. “rjn:gonben) and pull up all kanji with that radical. Then you can learn the stroke order of the entire kanji, including the radical. In that way, you will also learn the stroke order of the radical by itself. But I do not recommend you practice writing radicals by themselves, separate from kanji.

      I hope Kanji alive is helpful for your study of Japanese kanji.

      Best,
      Harumi Lory
      Kanji alive team

      Reply ↓
  25. Hope

    Hey!
    This is very useful, as I am beginning to learn Japanese. I have most of the hiragana down and some Katakana. I wanted to get started on the kanji.
    To be honest, the concept of memorizing so many characters and their names/ sounds terrifies me. I have no idea where to start and how to learn them. A friend suggested learning radicals, so this is why I’m here.
    Where do I start with learning them? What’s an easy way to memorize all of them? And do I need to learn them all?
    After I finish learning radicals, will I be prepared enough to learn Kanji?
    Sorry for all the questions, and thank you for your time.

    Reply ↓
    1. Harumi Lory

      Dear Hope,

      Thank you for your inquiry.

      Especially as a beginner, it’s really not necessary for you to learn all of the radicals. Focus instead on the ones marked “Important” on http://kanjialive.com/214-traditional-kanji-radicals/ These radicals will be vital for your continued study of kanji.

      It is true that learning radicals is important for learning kanji, because each radical has meaning. But when it comes to writing the radicals, I think it is best to practice writing them as integral parts of the kanji in which they are contained. You can search kanji by radical (e.g. “rjn:gonben”) and pull up all kanji with that radical. Then you can learn the stroke order of the entire kanji, including the radical. In that way, you will also learn the stroke order of the radical by itself. But I do not recommend you practice writing radicals by themselves, separate from kanji.

      I can also suggest you should learn kanji by grade. As a start, enter “grade:1” to search all kanji which are taught in the first grade of Japanese elementary schools. These are the basic and easy kanji. And you can learn the basic and important radicals while learning those kanji.

      Good luck on your study of kanji!

      Kanji alive team

      Reply ↓
  26. Mirei

    Hi,

    Thanks for the awesome website! However, I’m wondering where in the provided csv data files, I can find the “a variant of …” information as shown in the table above.

    Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse Post author

      Hi Mirei – that’s a good point. Thank you for pointing this out to us. I’ll update the radical spreadsheet in our GitHub repository with this information soon. In the meantime, I will send you an email with a spreadsheet which includes the “a variant of..” column.

      Reply ↓
  28. Tim

    Hi there!

    Great website! I was just wondering, if the position of the radical (form) above is not listed in the table, does it mean that particular Kanji only occurs on its own, without other parts?

    Regards,

    Tim

    Reply ↓
  29. KanjiGuy

    Thanks for the list of radicals! You’re right understanding the radicals meaning really helps to remember the meaning :) Thank you for compiling such extensive list!

    Reply ↓
  30. Jason Knobler

    Hi thanks for the great info, I’ve learned so much from this single page.

    You wrote “Every kanji without exception only has one radical”, but it looks to me that the Kanji for “Devil” 魔 has two radicals.
    It seems to contain both “Demon” ⿁(おに) and “Hemp” (あさかんむり)

    Thanks!

    Reply ↓
    1. Harumi Lory

      Dear Jason,

      Thank you for your inquiry.

      The kanji 魔 contains two separate parts. But its radical 部首 is 鬼 (おに). It is true that each kanji has only one 部首.

      Reply ↓
  32. John Dierking

    May I send you a booklet I prepared that contains images and poetry to help students memorize kanji radicals?

    John Dierking

    Reply ↓
  34. Meimei

    Thank you for the list of radicals! This is very useful and Ill do my best to understand it (T^T) kanji is kind of complicated but you made it so easy to understand, im still learning the basic! Its just a lot of words to take in (~___~) arigatou ♡♡

    Reply ↓
  35. Ritsu

    Thanks very much for the lesson. I just learned all kana but since I’m studying on my own, I have no idea on how to learn kanji. I’m not sure to memorise everything so, please how can I easily learn kanji with radicals?
    Thanks in advance ^^

    Reply ↓
    1. Harumi Lory

      Dear Ritsu,

      Thank you for your inquiry.

      Especially as a beginner, it’s really not necessary for you to learn all of the radicals. Focus instead on the ones marked “Important” on http://kanjialive.com/214-traditional-kanji-radicals/ These radicals will be vital for your continued study of kanji.

      It is true that learning radicals is important for learning kanji, because each radical has meaning. But when it comes to writing the radicals, I think it is best to practice writing them as integral parts of the kanji in which they are contained. You can search kanji by radical (e.g. “rjn:gonben”) and pull up all kanji with that radical. Then you can learn the stroke order of the entire kanji, including the radical. In that way, you will also learn the stroke order of the radical by itself. But I do not recommend you practice writing radicals by themselves, separate from kanji.

      I can also suggest you should learn kanji by grade. As a start, enter “grade:1” to search all kanji which are taught in the first grade of Japanese elementary schools. These are the basic and easy kanji. And you can learn the basic and important radicals while learning those kanji.

      Good luck on your study of kanji!

      Kanji alive team

      Reply ↓
  37. Echenar Haruta

    Thanks for the comprehensive list.
    I sincerely appreciate your efforts for the compilation.

    I long back had a photocopied one paper list, got it from one of the appendix at the end of some dictionary (maybe Gakken?!, can’t recall)

    After a long break, I am once again brushing up my Kanji skill. Preparing for N1. This list is going to be indispensable.

    Regards,
    Echenar

    Reply ↓
  38. Bonny

    I am a kiwi so Japanese is a bit hard for me especially cause i am really young and i only know English and a bit of Maori but your website defiantly helped me arigato also do you have anymore websites on things like this plz tell me you rock

    Reply ↓
  39. Kenny

    i just started learning kanji but i see a lot of reading and few meaning or few meanings but of lot reading, am a little confused.

    Reply ↓
  40. PJ

    I was wondering, I like to use the Memrise.com app to study. Would it be okay to use this information to make myself a study course on Memrise?

    In case you don’t know, Memrise is like a flashcard game site. It is mainly used to study language. Students design their own flashcards and then play memory games with them. For example, they can add sounds-bytes, pictures, etc. However, when a student designs as “course,” it becomes public to all users, so I don’t want to use your information without permission. Please let me know in a reply when you can. Thank you.

    Reply ↓
  42. Nothingness

    I got a question, why is the Katakana ⺍ a radical. In Chinese radicals there is no such thing. Can anyone explain this to me. Thank you.

    Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse Post author

      Thank you very much for your question. Here is the answer I received from Sensei Lory. “The radical ⺍ (Katakana “tsu”) does not exist in the Kangxi Dictionary, nor in the 漢和辞典 (Japanese Dictionary of Kanji) which was published before World War II. After the war, some kanji were simplified according to the reform of Kanji characters of Chinese origin in the Japanese language. The kanji 單,嚴,勞,榮,螢,營,擧,譽,學,覺,巢,獵 were simplified to 単,厳,労,栄,蛍,営,挙,誉,学,覚,巣,猟. As a result, the complicated top of the old kanji were simplified and a new radical ⺍ (Katakana “tsu”) was created for the revised kanji.” This is why ⺍ is not included amongst the Chinese radicals.

      Reply ↓
    1. Thor

      Oh yeah and how do i know which is the most popular reading for certain radicals and kanji? Is there like a website for it or is it just something I have to learn by myself through experience?

      Reply ↓
  44. Thor

    Also, how do I know which reading of certain radicals and kanji are the most popular? I’d rather not memorize all the readings and just focus on the most useful ones. Is there something like a website for it or do I just have to figure it out through experience?

    Reply ↓
    1. Kanji alive team

      Hi Thor, some of the answers to your questions are covered in the introduction to our table of radicals (i.e. top of the page). But you also asked about the ‘popularity’ of a radical. We don’t rank radicals by language frequency like Wikipedia does and prefer to use the more holistic term ‘importance’ as this is able to incorporate a number of different factors. Often the two lists will overlap but if you focus on the radicals we have marked as ‘important’ you’ll also be focusing on those radicals that are most relevant to a beginning or intermediate level student of Japanese.

      Reply ↓
  46. Furendaaa

    Thanks, I will pass it to my students, it’s really useful and well made, maybe the best online I’ve seen so far.
    Thank you!

    Reply ↓
  47. Maddhav

    Thank you very much , Because of you , now I can learn all the Kanji Radicals.
    Thank you very much :)

    Reply ↓
    1. Harumi Lory

      They are different. Katakana tsu is ツ and the kanji “small” is 小

      For example, when you write the kanji 単 “single”, Katakana tsu ツ must be used, see https://app.kanjialive.com/単 If you use 小 “small”, your writing is wrong. For the kanji 当 “present, hit”, 小 “small” should be used, see https://app.kanjialive.com/当 In this case, if you use Katakana tsu ツ, your writing is not correct. The second line of 小 must be straight.

      Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse Post author

      Hi Yudi, thanks for your question. “Important” means that the radical is in active use today and is thus especially important for students. When you first start studying Japanese, focus your attention on these radicals.

      Reply ↓
  51. John

    Hello! First, I want to say thank you for creating and maintaining this radical list and this website!

    I am trying to study this list using flashcards in Anki and noticed the Github site has 247 radical images but the table on this page has 321 lines of radicals. I made a list of all the missing radical images and couldn’t find a pattern explaining their absence. Is there a reason why they’re missing and are there plans to add images for them on Github?

    Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse Post author

      Hi Alok, some radicals are also kanji in and of themselves. In such cases, the kanji and the radical are one and the same, and thus the position of the radical in the kanji is irrelevant. As a result they do not fall into any one of the seven categories and have no position.

      Reply ↓
  55. Tom

    Thank you very much for this cool web and app. It’s very useful for learning kanji :D

    どうもありがとう

    Reply ↓
  57. George Anthony

    Hello, I just want to say that this website is a great starting point for learning kanji. And I am very grateful the there are websites like this online for FREE. I was also amazed by the fact that the moderators here respond to questions SINCE 2013. Anyways, I learned the important radicals on this website. Should I continue by learning jouyo kanji by grade and their readings? Or should I read textbooks instead?

    Thanks again for your amazing work and website.

    Reply ↓
  58. Dmitrii Kouznetsov

    The table is beautiful and helpful, but complicated. I try to reproduce any of the half-width Kanji radicals:
     (narrow ⼥, おんなへん) 
     (narrow ⼦, こへん) 
     (narrow ⼭, やまへん) 
    By default, they appear as a hexadecimal number in a square.
    How to enable the Kanji radicals in my text (html, wikiformat, latex,.. )?

    Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse Post author

      Hello Dmitrii, thank you for your kind comments on our kanji radicals page. I suspect I know what the problem is. There are several kanji radicals whose glyphs are rarely included in fonts. Over and beyond that, there are other forms which aren’t even represented in Unicode. To address this, we created a free, custom font with full support all Japanese radicals and their variants (321 characters), including half-form variants. This is also what allows us to represent all the radicals correctly on our own kanji radicals page. You’re very welcome to make use of our font to represent the radicals in your own documents, website etc.

      Reply ↓
  59. Nina

    This list mentions (⺍) (katakana tsu) as a radicle and I think that’s it’s a variant of (⼩) and it is not mentioned, can you confirm this as I am not sure if I am right or wrong.

    Reply ↓
    1. Harumi Lory Post author

      Thank you for your inquiry.

      The Katakana “Tsu ⺍” is not a variant of 小.

      The radical ⺍ (Katakana “tsu”) does not exist in the Kangxi Dictionary, nor in the 漢和辞典 (Japanese Dictionary of Kanji) which was published before World War II. After the war, some kanji were simplified according to the reform of Kanji characters of Chinese origin in the Japanese language. The kanji 單,嚴,勞,榮,螢,營,擧,譽,學,覺,巢,獵 were simplified to 単,厳,労,栄,蛍,営,挙,誉,学,覚,巣,猟. As a result, the complicated top of the old kanji were simplified and a new radical ⺍ (Katakana “tsu”) was created for the revised kanji.” This is why ⺍ is not included amongst the Chinese radicals.

      Reply ↓
  60. Keshav

    Hello,
    In Japanese, many Kanji have same pronunciation. How can I differ between Kanjis in a sentence with same pronunciation?

    Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse Post author

      Hi Jenna, thank you for your question and my apologies for the late response! You can find a version of our radicals table in MS Excel format on our GitHub site. However, this requires you to also install our Japanese radicals font on your computer in order to view everything correctly. To make this process easier, I’ve uploaded a PDF version of the Excel spreadsheet to our GitHub site as well. This can be used ‘as is’. You can find a direct link to download the PDF here.

      Reply ↓
  62. Marc-Olivier Lessard

    I noticed that the kanji 靴 uses the radical つくりがわ（革）, but I’ve seen ressources classify it as かわへん instead, but that is absent for this table. Since it’s on the left side, it makes sense to be classified as へん, so I’m a bit confused here. Also, つくり implies that this radical would be found on the right side, but there are no position associated with the radical. Could you help me out?

    Reply ↓
  63. Reem

    it’s been a year since I started learning the radicals and using this website as a reference
    today I’ll be learning the last radical on the list
    I wanted to thank you for putting together this list as it has helped so much with my journey! ♡

    Reply ↓
  65. David Sterba

    Straight up , this site the Kanji Alive team has created is uh-maze-ing ! What a fantastic resource, and what a joy to plunder – cannot believe it is free. And, to top if off, if newcomers read all the responses given (from Harumi Lory and others at KA) given to questions raised, you get a solid guide as to how to go about learning kanji !! Thanks a million.

    Reply ↓
  66. Devon Pearce

    I found an error on the page. The kanji for spicy has the correct hiragana, but the english word assigned to it is currently ‘bitter’ instead of spicy.

    Reply ↓
  67. Sophia W.

    片 Should mean Slice, rather than Split Wood (which is the Radical before that: 爿) . Also, 「丬」variant for 爿 seems to be missing!

    Other than that, thank you for compiling this list and making it so easy to learn the radicals!

    Reply ↓
    1. Harumi Lory

      Thank you for your comment. We are glad to hear that Kanji alive helps your study.

      片 doesn’t mean just “slice”. As the animation for 片 shows on https://app.kanjialive.com/片, the original meaning of this kanji/radical is “one of two, one side.” After splitting a piece of wood, the right part of 木 (tree) became 片 while the left part of 木 became 爿(shohen).

      「丬」is not considered a radical or even a variant for 爿.

      You might think of some kanji below because they use 丬on the left side. But actually 丬is not a radical for them.
      状: Its radical is 犬 (the right side of kanji)
      将: Its radical is 寸 (the bottom part of the right side of kanji)

      I hope it helps you understand radicals.

      Reply ↓
  68. Scuza

    Hi I’m scuza and I’m using this site for a while. I just realized some most used components doesnt included. Maybe because its already limited with 214 component.
    I wanna ask about this ” ” component, I found it another site and I wonder why it doesnt marked as important or not included in this page even we use it so much?
    I’m trying to remember the kanji components but even this was 2 stroke I wasnt able to name it from my mind while practicing the kanji. for example “気” what should I say for top of the “ki” kanji right.. so I found a site shows very long radical list and it includes components that I couldn’t find from the beginning.
    Do you recommend me to learn that shadowed components?

    Reply ↓
    1. Harumi Lory

      Thank you for your question.

      There are only 214 radicals. 気’s radical for ” 气 : kigamae”. Some other sites mention “components” to explain each kanji. However, components are not radicals. Therefore Kanji alive site doesn’t mention and list “components”. Please don’t confuse 214 radicals with components.

      I don’t understand what you mean by “shadowed components” in your question. If my explanation above doesn’t answer your question, please clarify your question more specifically.

      I hope Kanji alive will be useful for your future Kanji learning as well.

      Reply ↓
  69. Antonio V.

    Awesome site! It has being extremely useful for me. I have a question concerning the 141th Kangxi radical “⾌” (tiger). It is categorized as かんむり (on top position). However, based on the kanji derived from it (虎, 虐, …), it seems more like a たれ radical (on the top-left corner). What do you think?

    Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse Post author

      Hi Antonio, thank you for your questions and my apologies for the long delay. As you correctly noted, this radical is used like たれ (on the top-left corner) in kanji, but it is classified as かんむり (on top position) in the Kangxi Dictionary, so we chose to follow the traditional classification.

      Reply ↓
  71. Edo

    I will expand the question. I now see that you have listed in your radicals documents 322 radicals that make up the chart above. But, only 247 in your radicals-character files. Can the others be found some place else?

    Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse Post author

      Hi Ed, it’s been a very long time since we uploaded this dataset so I will need to look into why the discrepancy exists but in the meantime I’ve emailed you a spreadsheet with the data for the full 322 radical chart. I hope this is useful. You’ll need to also install a free, custom font to see all of the radical variants. I’ve attached that font as well in my email to you.

      Reply ↓
  72. Virendra

    If someone wants to see stroke order for all of these radicals, you can find it on “https://takoboto.jp” under “find kanji by radicals”.

    Reply ↓
  73. Jamie

    Hi there,
    It’s 2026 and I’ve only just found this website now!!!

    I just wanted to say I have been completely and utterly humbled at your incredible wealth of knowledge and sheer mastery on this topic. There is no question you can’t answer! And your depth of explanation that fully explains the rationale, and your understanding of the history and context behind your answers is amazing. THANK YOU SO MUCH for putting this page together! And also for answering each question exquisitely with such patience and meekness. I have learned so much from reading your explanations to all of the questions, which have actually answered some of my own questions that I was wondering for years. I’m totally gobsmacked and thrilled to have stumbled across this page. Please keep up the seriously amazing work! Subarashii!

    Reply ↓
    1. Arno Bosse Post author

      Dear George, thank you for your inquiry. We apologize for the delay in responding.Here is the answer to your question.

      爿 is listed as a radical in the Kangxi Dictionary <http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Science/kangxizidian.html>. Please see Radical # 90. However, since 丬is not a radical, it can’t be found in the Kangxi Dictionary. In Chinese, 爿 is used as a radical in Chinese characters. 丬is the abbreviated form that appears on the left side of many modern Chinese characters. In Simplified Chinese, it often replaces 爿. In the Japanese language, neither 爿 nor 丬 is used as a radical for kanji.

      If you still have any questions, please email us anytime.

      Reply ↓

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