鼓
鼓 — Drum
drum, beat, rouse, muster
On’yomiコ (ko)
Kun’yomiつづみ (tsuzumi)
Stroke order (13 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 鼓
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 太鼓 | たいこ taiko | drum |
| 鼓舞 | こぶ kobu | encouragement; inspiration; rousing |
| 太鼓判 | たいこばん taikoban | large seal; large stamp; seal of approval |
| 鼓動 | こどう kodou | beat; palpitation; pulsation |
| 鼓 | つづみ tsuzumi | tsuzumi; hourglass-shaped Japanese hand drum; drum (general term for struck leather percussion instruments) |
| 鼓膜 | こまく komaku | eardrum; tympanic membrane |
Study notes
鼓 is a JLPT N1 kanji written with 13 strokes. It is taught at secondary-school level in Japan. Ranked #1795 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).
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