Meaning & readings
capital, suburbs of capital
On’yomi キ
Kun’yomi みやこ
Origin
This character most likely combines the idea of organized land with military control. The repeated elements suggest structured territory — the 田 component represents fields or organized land, while 戈 represents weapons or military might. Together, these parts evoke the concept of a well-ordered, controlled territory under strong governance, which naturally led to the meaning of a capital or its surrounding administrative region. The character essentially pictures the idea of a fortified, organized center of power.
Components
- 幺
- 幺
- 戈
- 田
- 戈
Common words
- 近畿 きんき Kinki (region around Osaka, Kyoto, Nara)
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 15
- Kangxi radical
- 102
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1683 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- —
- Unicode
- U+0757F