ancestor, pioneer, founder
Came from Chinese. It usually shows up when the kanji is joined to another, forming a compound word.
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.
今年のプログラムには、新しい種目がありました:祖父母のかけっこです。
Kotoshi no puroguramu ni wa, atarashii shumoku ga arimashita: sofubo no kakekko desu.
The program had a new event this year: the grandparents' race.
Readings and meanings: KANJIDIC2 · Decomposition: KRADFILE · Both from Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, CC BY-SA 4.0 · data from 2026-10-22 · Strokes: KanjiVG, Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0