日 (Day) - Meaning and history | Japanese Kanji
GokuGoku
8 min reading time
Updated on 4 September 2022
日
Kun readings 🇯🇵
On readings 🇨🇳
The kanji derives from the pictogram that originally represented the solar disk and which in its evolution has taken its current form. Each word that contains 日 has to do with the day of the year on the calendar, and also with sunlight.
This ideogram has 4 画 traits and is also radical, meaning that it becomes a part within other kanji, like a keyword of the kanji itself.
明るい is an adjective which means bright, clear. As you can see the kanji 明 contains the element 日 "Sun, light"
日本 Nihon or Nippon is the term that indicates Japan: the Rising Sun, 本 in this case indicates the origin
The adjective "Japanese" derives directly from the Japanese name and pronunciation.
日曜日 Sunday, the day of the Sun
All terms indicating the day of the week contain the ideogram of day 日 at the end of the word:
月曜日
Monday火曜日
Tuesday水曜日
Wednesday木曜日
Thursday金曜日
Friday土曜日
Saturday日曜日
Sunday
曜日 indicates the day of the week.
誕生日 the birthday, the day (日) of the birth (誕生)
For the birthday there is also often the loan word from English "birthday", which is adapted to Japanese phonetics and becomes バースデイ.
お誕生日おめでとうぎざいます。
Happy birthday
時 is the ideogram that translates time, moment, hour, season and contains as radicals the element 日 day, say
日 is also counter, classifier or numeric suffix to count the days of the month:
一日
the first of the month二日
the two三日
three四日
four五日
five六日
you are七日
seven八日
eight九日
nine十日
ten十一日
eleven十二日
twelve十三日
thirteen十四日
fourteen十五日
fifteen十六日
sixteen十七日
seventeen十八日
eighteen十九日
nineteen二十日
twenty二十一日
twenty-one二十二日
twenty-two二十三日
twenty-three二十四日
twenty-four二十五日
twenty-five二十六日
twenty-six二十七日
twenty-seven二十八日
twenty-eight二十九日
twenty-nine三十日
thirty三十一日
thirty-one
Here above we see the kanji of the numbers. It's important to consider that Arabic numbers are widely used also in the Japanese language.
日 is also the kanji of the famous city of Nikkō: 日光市, "the city of sunlight”, in the mountainous region of Tochiji prefecture
生年月日 we need to fill in some documents where the date of birth is requested: 生 birth, 年 year, 月 month, 日 day.
日付 is the term instead that simply refers to the "date".
本日 indicates today, today's date. 翌日 the next day, the next day.
毎日
Every day
Other adverbs of time that contain 日:
今日
today昨日
yesterday一昨日
the day before yesterday明日
tomorrow明後日
after tomorrow
元日 is the first day of the year, January 1st; 大晦日 instead indicates the last day of the year, December 31st
日 as a radical also in kanji 智 wisdom, reason and intelligence
A beautiful holiday in Japan is Nature Day which falls on the Golden Week period, the holiday week between late April and early May. 緑の日 the day of greenery which is celebrated in May.
お日様 is a beautiful term for the Sun; the kanji 日 of sun / day is preceded by a prefix お and followed by a suffix 様, both honorific to emphasize the greatness and gratitude to the Star to whom we owe our Life
暇 free time, rest, relaxation contains the radical 日
良い一日を！
Have a nice day!
Example of kunyomi readings 🇯🇵
ひ
The reading ひ (hi) is the standard reading for the word day and sun and all the expressions that contain these words: every day, one day, number of days, sunlight.
It is also used in words like 春日 spring, 朝日 morining sun, and 夕日 evening sun.
外に出るともう夕日が沈んでいた。
If you go outside the evening sun was already setting down.
び
The reading び (bi) is used for the days of the week among other things:
日曜日:
Sunday土曜日:
Saturday平日:
weekday
Example of onyomi readings 🇨🇳
にち
The reading にち (nichi) is used for time frequencies (everyday, all day long) and for some relative dates (today, tomorrow, first day).
じつ
The reading じつ (jitsu) is similar to にち. It is used for words about a time duration or to specify a relative date: today, tomorrow, yesterday, previous day, half day, and such.
今日は本当にありがとうございました。
Thank you so much for today.
