字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

scenery, view

On’yomi ケイ
Nanori かげ

Origin

The character 景 combines the sun or day radical 日 at the top with 京 below, which serves as a sound hint for the Chinese-derived pronunciation. The sun is a natural symbol for light and visibility, which connects to the idea of what you can see or observe. Together, these components suggest the bright, visible world around you — the scenery or landscape that becomes apparent when light illuminates it. Over time, this evolved into the broader meaning of "view" or "scenery" in general.

景 12 strokes

Components

  • 日 radical top
  • 京 sound hint bottom

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 景観 けいかん scenery
  • 景気 けいき business conditions; the market
  • 景勝 けいしょう picturesque scenery; place of scenic beauty
  • 景色 けしき scenery; scene
  • 景品 けいひん gift; premium
  • 光景 こうけい scene; spectacle
  • 情景 じょうけい spectacle; sight
  • 背景 はいけい background; scenery

Related kanji

Same sound component 京
Same radical

Easily confused with

These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
72
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#419 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+0666F