Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

昭: shining, bright

JLPT N19 strokesGrade 3Your ink: 白 Not met

日 carries the meaning · 召 gives the sound

9 strokes

One reading, and the words that use it

ショウshou · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 昭和しょうわShowa era
  • 昭和天皇しょうわてんのうShowa emperor
  • 昭しょうnth year in the Shōwa era…

Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0 · JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
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成り立ち

Where it comes from

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“The life-giving sun in the sky! This simple box was once a perfect circle, representing the regular rising and setting of the sun that marks the rhythm of our lives.”
More in the 日 sun story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
日

Also built on sun (日)

All 70
召

Also built on seduce (召)

昭 takes the 召 family's reading, ショウ (shou).

昭 gives its sound to

The family reading is ショウ (shou). Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read ショウ

90 kanji share this on'yomiAll 90

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
昭 shining · 日
vs招 beckon · 扌
昭 has 日 where 招 has 扌.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · zhāo

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

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

Pinyin zhāo 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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