technique, art, craft, performance
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.
落語は、とても古い日本の伝統芸です。
Rakugo wa, totemo furui Nihon no dentougei desu.
Rakugo is a very old traditional Japanese art.
芸人は一人で座って、面白い話をします。
Geinin wa hitori de suwatte, omoshiroi hanashi o shimasu.
The performer tells funny stories, sitting alone on stage.
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