初 — first time, beginning

はつ初 first time

Grade 4 Japanese school grade level in which this kanji is taught. Grade 1 is first year of elementary school. 7 strokes number

U+521D Unicode hex codepoint — a unique identifier for this character in the Unicode standard. Freq #152 Frequency rank among the ~2,500 most common kanji in Japanese newspapers. Lower number = more common. Heisig #431 Index in James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" — a popular textbook that teaches kanji through mnemonics and stories.

Post

Meanings

first time
beginning

Readings

On'yomi: しょ sho
Kun'yomi: はつ hatsu はじ haji うい ui そ so ぞ zo

word

はつ hatsu Kun'yomi Kun'yomi (訓読み) — the native Japanese reading of this kanji. Used when the kanji appears alone or with okurigana (trailing hiragana).

初(はつ) hatsu first 初(はつ) 詣(もうで) hatsumoude New Year's first shrine visit

しょ sho On'yomi On'yomi (音読み) — the Sino-Japanese reading, derived from Chinese pronunciation. Most commonly used in compound words (jukugo).

最(さい) 初(しょ) saisho first 当(とう) 初(しょ) tousho at first 初(しょ) 期(き) shoki early stage 初(しょ) 心(しん) 者(しゃ) shoshinsha beginner 初(しょ) 日(にち) shonichi first day 初(しょ) 回(かい) shokai first time 初(しょ) 代(だい) shodai first generation 初(しょ) 頭(とう) shotou beginning

はじ haji Kun'yomi Kun'yomi (訓読み) — the native Japanese reading of this kanji. Used when the kanji appears alone or with okurigana (trailing hiragana).

初(はじ) めて hajimete for the first time 初(はじ) め hajime beginning

Stroke order

Stroke data from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Components

Composed of

衤 clothing (left form)

かたな刀 sword #18

Open in Atlas

Kangxi Radical The Kangxi radicals are a set of 214 character components standardized in the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary. Every kanji is classified under one radical, used for dictionary lookup and character organization.

#18 刀 knife