字の旅3,000 years in four forms
Oracle bone · ShangShang · c. 1200 BCE佚450 合33949
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Bronze and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
部首Radical · in Animals & Wildlife
羊 sheep
ひつじ hitsuji
6 strokesRadical of 6 kanjiPart of 18
Origin · sourced
Pictogram象形
Picture of a ram's head.
Source: Wiktionary, 羊 (rev. 92536807), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Gentle, pure, and good! This radical represents the positive traits traditionally associated with sheep—meekness, beauty, and the grace of a ritual offering. When you see it, think of moral goodness, aesthetic beauty, social harmony (like a peaceful flock), or objects and words that are pleasing to the soul. It brings a sense of sacrificial grace and communal peace to its characters.”
Where it sits in a kanji
Indicates goodness, beauty, righteousness, social groups/flocks, or concepts related to ritual sacrifice and peace.
What it grows into
- 美beautyビ · うつくしい
羊 + 大
A person (大) wearing a headdress (now written 羊) of feathers or ram's horn.
Ideogrammic compound · Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
- 義righteousnessギ
我sound + 羊
The component 羊 here signifies "good; beautiful; auspicious" and not "sheep". See 祥, 善 and 幸.
Phono-semantic compound · Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every kanji with 羊 as its radical
All 6 kanji