What is the Kanji for "Cooked rice" and "Food"?

If you are wondering what is the Japanese Kanji for "Cooked rice" and "Food", you've come to the right place!

The Japanese Kanji for "Cooked rice" and "Food" is "飯".

This kanji has 2 readings:

Its kunyomi reading is "Meshi".

Its onyomi reading is "Han".

kunyomi readings are based on the pronunciation of native Japanese words, and onyomi readings are based on the Chinese pronunciation of the character.

If you visually breakdown this kanji, you can see is made up of 2 parts:

The radical "飠" means "Eat" . And The kanji "反" means "Anti" and can be read as "Han", "Tan", and "So".

Now, let's make sure you understand this kanji the other way around too.

What does the kanji "飯" mean in japanese?

"飯" means "Cooked rice" and "Food".

Japanese School Students learn this kanji in Fourth Grade, while foreigners may learn this kanji in preparation for the JLPT N4 exam.

Here are some words that use this kanji:

夕飯: "Dinner". The Japanese noun '夕飯 (ゆうはん)' refers to the evening meal, typically the main meal of the day. It is commonly used to describe the dinner that is eaten in the evening hours. Some example sentences: I'm having a delicious dinner - (私は美味しい夕飯を食べています). Let's have dinner together - (一緒に夕飯を食べましょう).

朝御飯: "Breakfast". The Japanese noun '朝御飯 (あさごはん)' refers to the first meal of the day, typically eaten in the morning. It is an important part of the daily routine in Japanese culture. '朝御飯' is composed of the words '朝' meaning 'morning' and '御飯' meaning 'cooked rice' or 'meal'. It is often a more substantial meal compared to a typical Western breakfast, and may include rice, miso soup, grilled fish, tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelette), and various side dishes. For example: I ate a delicious breakfast this morning - (今朝おいしい朝御飯を食べた).

御飯: "Rice" or "Meal". The Japanese noun '御飯 (ごはん)' has two main meanings. The first meaning is 'rice', referring to the staple food made from cooked rice grains. The second meaning is 'meal', encompassing a full, prepared set of dishes, with rice usually being the main component. This word is commonly used in phrases such as: I'm going to eat my meal - (ご飯を食べます). Would you like some rice? - (ご飯を食べますか?)

飯: "Meal". The noun '飯 (めし)' means 'meal'. It refers to a cooked bowl of rice or other grains that is the main part of a traditional Japanese meal. It can be used to refer to any meal, but has a strong association with rice-based dishes. For example: I'm going to eat my meal - (飯を食べます). Let's have a meal together - (一緒に飯を食べましょう).

To make really sure you learn this Kanji, I've prepared an interactive lesson for you. You are going to learn the readings and meanings of this kanji.

But first, you need to know a little bit about Hiragana and Katakana.

Hiragana and katakana are japanese syllabaries, this means that each character represents a syllable.

This are the characters you need to know for this lesson:

The hiragana "は" is read as "ha". The hiragana "ん" is read as "n". The hiragana "め" is read as "me". And The hiragana "し" is read as "shi".

Heres a quick tutorial on how to use it. You'll be asked three type of questions: meaning, reading, and writing.

For meanings questions all you have to do is type the english meaning. If there is more than one meaning, you have to include them all in your answer separating them by commas (,).

For Reading questions you have to type the reading in romaji (roman letters, our normal alphabet) and it'll be automatically converted to hiragana if necessary. If there is more than one reading, you have to include them all in your answer separating them by commas (,).

For Writing questions some options will appear and all you have to do is select the correct ones.