Meaning & readings
technique, art, craft, performance, acting, trick, stunt
On’yomi ゲイ、ウン
Kun’yomi う.える、のり、わざ
Nanori き、げ、なり
Origin
The character 芸 combines a grass radical at the top with the element 云 below, creating a compound that originally referred to plants or cultivation. Over time, the meaning shifted to encompass the idea of nurturing or developing skills, which led to the sense of technique and craft. The character eventually came to represent all kinds of performance arts and skillful practices, since these too require careful development and cultivation just like plants. Today it covers everything from acting to acrobatics to any refined technique that has been deliberately grown and perfected.
Components
- 艹
- 云
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 140
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #719 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+082B8