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Springtime

On’yomiしゅん
Kun’yomiはる
MeaningsSpringtime, Spring (season)
JLPT N4 9 strokes #571 most common Grade 2 Radical sun
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 春

Stroke order is not decoration — it determines how the character looks handwritten and how dictionaries index it.

9 strokes
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Draw it on screen and be marked on stroke order and direction.

分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 春

Almost every kanji is built from a small set of reusable parts. Learn the parts once and you stop memorising thousands of unrelated shapes.

𡗗 top
+ radical day =
Springtime
部首 · Radical

The radical of 春

Radical 72 of 214
Sun

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 春 is filed under (sun) — radical number 72 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 日

練習 · Practice

Drill 春 right now

Three quick games built from this character's real data. Your streak is kept in this browser.

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Springtime しゅん はる
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 春

Kanji are almost never met alone. These are the most common words built from this character, ordered by how often they actually appear in Japanese.

今春 こんしゅん this spring; spring this year
来春 らいしゅん next spring
春闘 しゅんとう spring labor offensive; annual spring wage bargaining round
青春 せいしゅん youth; adolescence; springtime of life
昨春 さくしゅん last spring; the spring of last year
売春 ばいしゅん prostitution
春秋 しゅんじゅう spring and autumn; spring and fall; years
春場所 はるばしょ Spring Tournament (held in Osaka in March)
新春 しんしゅん New Year
春宮 とうぐう crown prince
名乗り · Name readings

How 春 is read in names

Japanese names use readings that appear nowhere else in the language. These are 春's — the reason personal and place names are so hard to read even for native speakers.

あずまかすすのわら
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 春

Japanese has far more kanji than syllables, so one reading is shared by many characters. These are the ones you will confuse with 春 — learn them together, not separately.

地名 · In place names

Japanese towns written with 春

Place names are where kanji readings get strange — and where you meet this character in the wild.

画数 · 9 strokes

Other 9-stroke kanji

Useful when looking a character up by stroke count — and a common source of visual mix-ups.

頻度 · Frequency

Next in the frequency list

春 is the 571st most common kanji in written Japanese. Learning in frequency order is the fastest route to reading real text.

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質問 · Questions

About the kanji 春

What does the kanji 春 mean?

春 means Springtime, Spring (season). It is the 571st most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 春?

春 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) しゅん; kun'yomi (native Japanese) はる.

How many strokes does 春 have?

春 is written with 9 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 春?

It appears at JLPT level N4, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in grade 2.

What is the radical of 春?

The radical of 春 is 日 (sun), radical number 72 of the 214 Kangxi radicals. The radical is the component a dictionary files the character under, and it usually points at the character's meaning.

What parts is the kanji 春 made of?

春 is built from 𡗗 and 日 (day). Learning kanji as combinations of a few hundred reusable components is far more efficient than memorising each character as a separate shape.

What words use the kanji 春?

Common words written with 春 include 今春 (こんしゅん, this spring; spring this year); 来春 (らいしゅん, next spring); 春闘 (しゅんとう, spring labor offensive; annual spring wage bargaining round).

Which kanji sound the same as 春?

春 shares a reading with 俊 (しゅん), 旬 (しゅん), 瞬 (しゅん), 淳 (しゅん), 駿 (しゅん), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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