災
災 — Disaster
disaster, calamity, woe, curse, evil
On’yomiサイ (sai)
Kun’yomiわざわい (wazawai)
Stroke order (7 strokes)
Watch the strokes draw themselves in the correct order — numbers mark where each stroke starts. Diagram from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA).
Common words using 災
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 災害 | さいがい saigai | calamity; disaster; misfortune |
| 火災 | かさい kasai | conflagration; fire |
| 被災 | ひさい hisai | suffering (from a disaster); being hit (by an earthquake, typhoon, etc.); falling victim (to) |
| 防災 | ぼうさい bousai | disaster preparedness; prevention of damage resulting from a natural disaster; protection against disaster |
| 労災 | ろうさい rousai | work-related injury; work-related illness; work-related death |
| 大震災 | だいしんさい daishinsai | great earthquake (disaster); highly destructive earthquake |
Study notes
災 is a JLPT N1 kanji written with 7 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 5), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #976 of the 2,500 most frequent kanji in newspapers. On’yomi (音読み) are Chinese-derived readings mostly used in compound words; kun’yomi (訓読み) are native Japanese readings, with any highlighted part written in hiragana after the kanji (okurigana).
🔊 Tap the big kanji, any reading or any example word to hear it.