Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

楽: music, comfort

Also: ease

JLPT N413 strokesGrade 2Your ink: 白 Not met

木 carries the meaning · 白 and 冫 are drawn in

13 strokes
  • Oracle bone · Shang
  • Today

Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Four readings, and the words that use each

ガクgaku · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 楽器がっきmusical instrument
  • 音楽おんがくmusic

ラクraku · on'yomi

  • 楽ならくなcomfortable
  • 楽園らくえんparadise
  • 楽観するらっかんするbe optimistic
  • 楽観的ならっかんてきなoptimistic

たのしいtanoshii · kun'yomi · on its own

  • 楽しいたのしいfun
  • 楽しみたのしみenjoyment

たのしむtanoshimu · kun'yomi

  • 楽しむたのしむenjoy oneself

Also read ゴウ, このむ, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
Print sheet Present
成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Ideogrammic compound (會意)絲 string + 木 wood

Strings on a piece of wood, i.e. a wooden musical instrument.

Source: Wiktionary, 樂 (rev. 94525628), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Stand before a great, ancient tree and see 木! The vertical line is the sturdy trunk, the top strokes are branches reaching for the sunlight, and the bottom strokes are the roots gripping the earth.”
More in the 木 tree story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
白

Also built on white (白)

All 14
冫

Also built on ice (冫)

All 18
木

Also built on tree (木)

All 124

楽 gives its sound to

Sound parts: KanjiVG.

Also read ガク

4 kanji share this on'yomi

Also read ラク

3 kanji share this on'yomi

Also read ゴウ

12 kanji share this on'yomi
In ChineseSimplified 乐 · traditional 樂 · lè

Three different forms: Japanese 楽, simplified 乐, traditional 樂.

Simplified
乐 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
樂 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin lè 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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