public, prince, official, governmental
Came from Chinese. It usually shows up when the kanji is joined to another, forming a compound word.
It is Japanese. It usually shows up when the kanji stands alone or is followed by hiragana.
The order matters: it is what makes handwriting come out legible, and it is how dictionaries index the character.
Visual decomposition, for recognising and comparing — not always the character's origin.
Where it appears is highlighted — the translation doesn't always make that visible.
みどり公園を探しているんです。どこですか？
Midori kouen o sagashiterun desu. Doko desu ka?
I'm looking for Midori Park. Do you know where it is?
誰も公式には認めないでしょう。
Dare mo koushiki ni wa mitomenai deshou.
No one will ever officially confirm this.
あそこに入った…公民館?
Asoko ni haitta... kouminkan?
She went in there... a community hall?
Readings and meanings: KANJIDIC2 · Decomposition: KRADFILE · Both from Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, CC BY-SA 4.0 · data from 2026-09-07 · Strokes: KanjiVG, Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0