What is the Kanji for "River"?

If you are wondering what is the Japanese Kanji for "River", you've come to the right place!

The Japanese Kanji for "River" is "川".

This kanji has 2 readings:

Its kunyomi reading is "Kawa".

Its onyomi reading is "Sen".

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 "丿" means "Katakana no" . And The radical "丨" means "Stick" .

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

What does the kanji "川" mean in japanese?

"川" means "River".

Japanese School Students learn this kanji in First Grade, while foreigners may learn this kanji in preparation for the JLPT N5 exam.

Here are some words that use this kanji:

川: "River". The Japanese noun '川 (かわ)' refers to a large natural stream of water flowing in a channel or bed, usually to the sea or a lake. It can be used to describe any significant body of flowing water, from a small creek to a major waterway. For example: I walked along the river - (私は川沿いを歩いた). The river is wide here - (ここの川は広い).

小川: "Stream". The Japanese noun '小川 (おがわ)' refers to a small stream or creek. Small streams are common in rural and mountainous areas of Japan. They are often used for irrigation, drinking water, and as a feature in traditional Japanese gardens. For example: We saw a small stream in the forest - (森の中に小川を見つけた). The children played by the clear stream - (子供たちは透明な小川で遊んでいた).

天の川: "Milky Way". The Japanese noun '天の川 (あまのがわ)' refers to the Milky Way galaxy. This astronomical term describes the luminous band of stars and nebulae visible in the night sky. The Milky Way appears as a hazy, diffuse band of light due to the concentration of stars and cosmic dust in the plane of our galaxy. It is a prominent feature in Japanese culture and mythology. For example: I gazed up at the Milky Way - (私は天の川を見つめた).

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 "か" is read as "ka". The hiragana "わ" is read as "wa". The hiragana "せ" is read as "se". And The hiragana "ん" is read as "n".

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.