Dog in Japanese is 犬, said inu. Four strokes, and the character is a picture: the side view of a dog, reduced until only the posture is left. Its on’yomi is ケン (ken), which shows up inside compounds. Written in hiragana it is いぬ, and in katakana イヌ.
Dog in Japanese
Dog in Japanese is 犬, and the spoken word is inu. Like 猫 for cat, this is one of the tidy cases where the everyday word and the single character are the same thing. You point at a dog, you say inu, and you are done.
The on’yomi ケン (ken) never stands alone. It appears bolted into compounds: 番犬 (banken, a watchdog), 盲導犬 (moudouken, a guide dog), 忠犬 (chuuken, a faithful dog). Breed names split between the two readings and nobody minds much, which is why you hear both shibainu and shiba ken for 柴犬.
The Kanji for Dog: 犬
- Character: 犬
- On’yomi: ケン (ken)
- Kun’yomi: いぬ (inu)
- Stroke count: 4
- General meaning: dog
- Radical: 犬 (dog), Kangxi radical 94, which is also its own radical and appears in a compressed left-hand form as 犭
This is a Grade 1 kanji, taught in the first year of Japanese elementary school, and a JLPT N4 character. It is one of the first animals a Japanese child writes.
Japanese Symbol for Dog
犬 is a pictogram, which makes it rarer and older than most of the characters people choose. It is not built from a meaning half and a sound half the way 猫 is. It is a drawing that got worn smooth.
The oracle bone forms show a dog in profile, standing on its hind legs with the head up and the tail curled over the back. Centuries of brush work squared it off, the tail became that small stroke jutting from the upper right, and the body flattened into the same three strokes that make 大 (big). What survives is a stance rather than a portrait.
As a radical it collapses further, into 犭, three narrow strokes on the left side of a character. That form is the language’s marker for four-legged animals in general, not dogs specifically. You meet it in 狼 (ookami, wolf), 狐 (kitsune, fox), 猫 (neko, cat), and 猿 (saru, monkey). The dog stands in for the whole category of beasts, which tells you something about how long dogs have been standing next to people.
How to Write 犬 in Japanese
Four strokes, and three of them are simply 大.
Start with the horizontal stroke across the top. Then the long diagonal that sweeps down to the left. Then the diagonal that sweeps down to the right, crossing the first one, so the character stands with its legs apart. Last comes the short mark at the upper right, a small stroke pressed in above the crossing point.
That final mark is the whole character. Leave it off and you have written 大 (dai, big). Place it too low and it reads as a smudge on 大. Place it well and 犬 sits square and balanced. The site’s kanji library flags this pair for a reason: it is the single most common way a four-stroke tattoo goes wrong, and it goes wrong in both directions.
How to Say Dog in Japanese
Inu is two even beats: “ee-noo.” The i is short, as in “sit,” and the u is close to the vowel in “boot” but shorter and less rounded. No stress on either beat. Japanese does not mark plurals, so inu covers one dog or a park full of them.
Real sentences:
- 犬が好きです。(Inu ga suki desu.) I like dogs.
- うちの犬は柴犬です。(Uchi no inu wa shibainu desu.) Our dog is a Shiba.
- 犬を散歩に連れて行きます。(Inu o sanpo ni tsurete ikimasu.) I am taking the dog for a walk.
- 犬が二匹います。(Inu ga nihiki imasu.) There are two dogs.
- あの二人は犬猿の仲です。(Ano futari wa ken’en no naka desu.) Those two cannot stand each other.
That last idiom is worth keeping. English pairs cats and dogs; Japanese pairs dogs and monkeys, 犬猿の仲, literally the dog and monkey relationship.
Words and Compounds With 犬
- 子犬 (koinu): a puppy, literally child dog.
- 番犬 (banken): a watchdog or guard dog.
- 野良犬 (norainu): a stray.
- 盲導犬 (moudouken): a guide dog for the blind.
- 愛犬 (aiken): a beloved pet dog. 愛犬家 (aikenka) is a dog lover.
- 忠犬 (chuuken): a faithful dog. This is the word attached to Hachiko.
- 犬小屋 (inugoya): a kennel or doghouse.
- 柴犬 (shibainu): the Shiba, literally brushwood dog.
- 秋田犬 (akitainu): the Akita, named for the northern prefecture it comes from.
- 犬猿の仲 (ken’en no naka): on very bad terms.
Note the reading shifts. 犬 is inu on its own and at the end of native compounds, but softens to -ken in Sino-Japanese words like 番犬 and 忠犬. Both are correct Japanese and there is no rule you can apply blind; the word carries its own reading.
Dog in Japanese Culture
The story every Japanese schoolchild knows is Hachiko’s. He was a cream-coloured Akita born in Akita Prefecture in mid-November 1923, and he belonged to Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University. The two walked to Shibuya Station together in the mornings. Ueno died suddenly on 21 May 1925 and never came back through the ticket gate. Hachiko returned to that station almost every day for roughly nine and a half years, until his own death on 8 March 1935.
The bronze statue outside the station went up on 21 April 1934, while the dog was still alive and could attend its own unveiling. It was melted down for metal in August 1945 and recast in 1948, and that second bronze is the one people still meet under.
Two native breeds carry the 犬 character in their names and both are protected. The Akita was declared a natural monument of Japan in 1931; the Shiba followed in December 1936. 柴犬 means brushwood dog, after the scrub country in the Chubu region where it was bred to flush small game.
The stone animals flanking a shrine approach are a different matter. Komainu (狛犬) are usually translated as lion-dogs, and despite the 犬 in the name they are lion-like guardians rather than dogs. They come in pairs, one with an open mouth (阿形, agyou) and one with a closed mouth (吽形, ungyou), standing for the beginning and end of all things. If you are drawn to the guardian idea rather than the pet, that is the tradition to read about, and the kami who inhabit those shrines are the reason the guardians are there at all.
As a Tattoo
犬 is honest, simple, and slightly blunter than people expect. It says “dog,” flatly, the way a kennel sign says dog. It carries none of the loyalty symbolism English speakers attach to the animal, and a Japanese reader will see a plain noun rather than a statement about faithfulness.
If loyalty is the point, 忠 (chuu, loyalty) does the work, and 忠犬 (chuuken, faithful dog) is a real word with real weight behind it because of Hachiko. That two-character phrase says what most people mean when they reach for a dog tattoo.
Watch the fourth stroke. 犬 without its upper-right mark is 大 (big), and 大 with a stray mark is 犬. Tattoo artists working from a printed reference sometimes flatten that small stroke into the diagonal below it, and the result reads as a badly written 大. Check the placement of the mark in the stencil, not just in the source image.
On script: 犬 is written identically in Japanese, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese, so there is no wrong regional form to avoid here. The reading differs, of course. It is inu in Japanese and quǎn in Mandarin.
Four strokes hold up at almost any size, which makes this one of the safer single characters for small work. Give the crossing point of the two diagonals room to breathe and keep the top mark distinct.
Confirm with a native speaker before you ink. You can preview the character in vertical and horizontal layouts with the Japanese Tattoo Generator, and read the wider background in our guide to japanese tattoo meanings.
Related Kanji
FAQ
How do you say dog in Japanese?
You say inu, written 犬. Two flat beats, “ee-noo,” with no stress on either and no plural form. It covers a pet, a stray, or dogs in general. The on’yomi ken exists but only inside compounds such as 番犬 (banken, watchdog) and 盲導犬 (moudouken, guide dog).
What is the kanji for dog?
The kanji for dog is 犬, four strokes. It is a pictogram, originally a side view of a dog with its tail curled up, worn down over centuries into three strokes plus a mark. Its readings are いぬ (inu) and ケン (ken), and it is Kangxi radical 94, taught in Grade 1.
What is the Japanese symbol for dog?
犬 is the written symbol, and it is genuinely a picture rather than a sound-and-meaning compound. Its compressed form 犭 sits on the left of most animal kanji, including 狼 (wolf), 狐 (fox), and 猫 (cat), where it marks four-legged creatures broadly rather than dogs alone.
How do you write inu in Japanese?
Three ways, all correct in context. 犬 is the kanji and the standard written form. いぬ is hiragana, used in children’s books and casual writing. イヌ is katakana, common in scientific and veterinary writing about the species. Our guide to hiragana vs katakana explains when each fits.
Is 犬 the same character in Chinese?
Yes. 犬 is written identically in Japanese, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese, so there is no regional form to get wrong. Only the pronunciation shifts: inu in Japanese, quǎn in Mandarin. Modern Chinese usually says 狗 (gǒu) for an everyday dog, keeping 犬 for formal or compound use.
Who was Hachiko and why does Japan remember him?
Hachiko was an Akita who kept returning to Shibuya Station for about nine and a half years after his owner, professor Hidesaburo Ueno, died in May 1925. He died on 8 March 1935. His statue was first unveiled in April 1934, melted down in 1945, and recast in 1948. He is known as 忠犬ハチ公, faithful dog Hachiko.