Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

川: stream, river

Also: river or three-stroke river radical (no. 47)

JLPT N53 strokesGrade 1Your ink: 白 Not met
3 strokes
  • Oracle bone · Shang
  • Bronze · Western Zhou
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Oracle bone and bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Two readings, and the words that use each

センsen · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 河川かせんrivers

かわkawa · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 川かわriver
  • 川上かわかみupper reaches of a river
  • 川下かわしもdownstream
  • 江戸川えどがわEdo River
  • 小川おがわsmall stream, brook

Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Pictogram (象形)

Pictogram (象形) of flowing water – compare 水, 巛, and 𡿧.

Source: Wiktionary, 川 (rev. 92917941), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“The base kanji for a river, capturing the essential image of flowing water that has shaped human civilization and the landscape.”
From the 川 river story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered

川 gives its sound to

Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read セン

38 kanji share this on'yomiAll 38
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · chuān

Same form: 川 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).

Simplified
川 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
川 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin chuān most common reading

Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.

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