字の旅3,000 years in four forms
Oracle bone · ShangShang · c. 1200 BCE燕758 合6976 𠂤賓間
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.
The oracle bone, bronze and seal stages show 黑, not 黒 itself.
部首Radical · in Action & Movement
黒 black
くろ kuro
11 strokesRadical of 3 kanjiPart of 3
Origin · sourced
Pictogram象形
Oracle bone form uncertain, perhaps the element in 𦰩 / 堇 without 口. Bronze inscriptions added dots to a prominent head, usually read as facial tattoos 墨刑.
Source: Wiktionary, 黑 (rev. 93430111), the entry for the full form, CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Into the shadows! This radical represents the deepest, darkest hue in nature—the color of soot, midnight, and charcoal. When you see it, think of mysterious shadows, black ink, the intensity of burning, and the absolute purity of darkness. It brings a sense of deep mystery, structural weight, and the striking contrast of dark ink on a blank page to any character it joins.”
Where it sits in a kanji
Indicates the color black, darkness, ink and soot, burning or charcoal, and the conceptual state of being silent or hidden from view.
What it grows into
- 黙silenceモク · だまる
黒sound + 犬
Phono-semantic compound · Wiktionary, 默, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every kanji with 黒 as its radical
All 3 kanji