Gold in Japanese is 金, said kin. Eight strokes, and it is Kangxi radical 167 in its own right, the character that heads every metal in the writing system. Read kane instead and the same character means money. Written in hiragana it is きん, and in katakana キン.
Gold in Japanese
Gold in Japanese is 金, and the spoken word is kin. That reading covers the metal, the color, and the medal: 金メダル (kin medaru) is a gold medal, 金色 (kin’iro) is the color gold.
But 金 does three jobs at once, and which one you get depends on the reading. As kin it is gold. As kane, usually with the polite prefix as お金 (okane), it is money, and that is the most common word in the whole family. As a category it is metal in general, which is why every metal character in Japanese is built on it.
So a single character carries gold, money, and metal. Context sorts them out, and Japanese speakers do it without thinking.
The Kanji for Gold: 金
- Character: 金
- On’yomi: キン (kin), コン (kon), ゴン (gon)
- Kun’yomi: かね (kane), かな (kana-) and がね (-gane) in compounds
- Stroke count: 8
- General meaning: gold, metal, money
- Radical: 金 is itself a radical, Kangxi number 167, with no strokes added
It is taught in the first year of Japanese primary school and sits at JLPT N5, the beginner level, because you cannot get through a week in Japan without needing the word for money.
Japanese Symbol for Gold
金 is a phono-semantic compound, and the oldest sense in it is not gold at all.
The classical dictionary Shuowen reads the character as metal in the earth, with the two short marks inside standing for nuggets in the ground. The most ancient forms do not actually include the earth element, so that account came after the fact. What is well attested is the order of meanings: 金 first named copper, in a period when copper was the metal that mattered, then widened to metal in general, and only later narrowed onto gold as the metal above all others.
That history is why the character became a radical. Put 金 on the left of another character and you get a metal: 銀 (gin, silver), 鉄 (tetsu, iron), 銅 (dou, copper), 鋼 (hagane, steel), 鏡 (kagami, mirror), 鈴 (suzu, a bell), 針 (hari, a needle). The whole metalworking vocabulary of Japanese hangs off this one shape.
How to Write 金 in Japanese
Eight strokes, top before bottom, and it builds like a little roofed house.
Start with the roof: a stroke falling to the lower left, then a stroke falling to the lower right, meeting at a peak. Then the horizontal directly beneath the roof. Then a second, shorter horizontal below that. Then the vertical, straight down the middle through both. Then the two short marks, one on each side of that vertical, left before right. Then the long horizontal at the bottom, the widest stroke in the character, which closes it.
The peak of the roof and the bottom bar should line up in width, so the character reads as a stable triangle over a base. The two small side marks are the detail that gives 金 its texture, and they need clear air around them.
How to Say Gold in Japanese
Kin is one short beat and it sounds close to the English “keen” but clipped, with no drawn-out vowel. Kane is two even beats, “kah-neh,” with short vowels and no stress. Neither has the rising English intonation.
Real sentences:
- 金は値上がりしています。(Kin wa neagari shite imasu.) Gold is going up in price.
- 金メダルを取りました。(Kin medaru o torimashita.) She won a gold medal.
- お金がありません。(Okane ga arimasen.) I have no money.
- 金曜日に会いましょう。(Kin’youbi ni aimashou.) Let’s meet on Friday.
- この指輪は金でできています。(Kono yubiwa wa kin de dekite imasu.) This ring is made of gold.
Words and Compounds With 金
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| お金 | okane | money |
| 現金 | genkin | cash |
| 料金 | ryoukin | a fee, a fare |
| 税金 | zeikin | tax |
| 金持ち | kanemochi | a wealthy person |
| 金属 | kinzoku | metal |
| 金色 | kin’iro | the color gold |
| 黄金 | ougon | gold, golden, and figuratively excellent |
金曜日 (kin’youbi) is Friday, and it is worth explaining because the obvious guess is wrong. Japanese weekdays are named for the sun, the moon, and the five visible planets, and each planet carries one of the five East Asian elements. Venus is the metal planet. So Friday is metal day rather than gold day.
黄金 is the poetic register. Read ougon it means golden in the sense of superb, as in 黄金時代 (ougon jidai), a golden age. Read kogane, the same two characters mean gold as a substance, and the word turns up in place names all over Japan.
Gold in Japanese Culture
The most famous gold in Japan is on a building. 金閣寺 (Kinkaku-ji), the Temple of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, is formally called 鹿苑寺 (Rokuon-ji). The shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu bought the site as a villa, and it was converted into a Zen temple in 1397 after his death, according to his wishes. The top two floors are coated in gold leaf. The ground floor is not.
The pavilion standing there today is not the old one. On 2 July 1950 a twenty-two-year-old novice monk burned it down, an act that Yukio Mishima turned into a novel. It was rebuilt in 1955.
The other great Japanese use of gold is much smaller and, to my mind, more interesting. Kintsugi, literally golden joinery, repairs broken pottery with lacquer dusted with gold, so the break is highlighted rather than hidden. A cracked bowl comes back with a river of gold running through it and is worth more than it was intact. That instinct, that damage is part of an object’s history and should be visible, sits close to the heart of wabi-sabi.
One more word is worth knowing. 成金 (narikin), literally becoming gold, is a dismissive term for the newly rich. It is also the shogi word for a lesser piece promoted to the rank of gold general.
As a Tattoo
金 is a satisfying character to wear. Eight strokes give it density, the roof over the base is a naturally balanced silhouette, and there is enough internal detail for brush work to be expressive without the shape ever getting fussy.
Know what a Japanese reader sees. 金 is gold, but it is also and very commonly money. Standing alone on someone’s arm, it reads at least as much like currency as like the precious metal, and depending on the viewer that can look like a statement about wealth. If gold as a material is the idea, 黄金 (ougon) removes the ambiguity. If gold as achievement is the idea, 金メダル is what people actually associate with it.
Watch the pairings. 借金 (shakkin) is a debt, 税金 (zeikin) is tax, and 罰金 (bakkin) is a fine. Every one of them is 金 plus one ordinary character, and none of them is what anyone means by a gold tattoo. Kanji set side by side form real dictionary words rather than a sum of ideas.
On script: the standalone character 金 is written identically in Japanese, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese. The only divergence appears when it works as a radical inside another character, where simplified Chinese reduces it to 钅 while Japanese keeps the full form. For a single-character tattoo there is nothing to choose between. Only the sound changes, kin or kane in Japanese and jīn in Mandarin.
The character is roughly square and suits any flat placement: forearm, shoulder blade, chest, or calf. The two small marks flanking the central vertical are the first detail to close up as ink spreads, so avoid very small work.
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 gold in Japanese?
You say kin, written 金, one short beat close to a clipped “keen.” That is the word for the metal, the color, and a gold medal. Read the same character kane, and it means money instead, almost always with the polite prefix as お金 (okane).
What is the kanji for gold?
The kanji for gold is 金, eight strokes, and it is Kangxi radical 167 in its own right. Readings are キン (kin) and かね (kane). It first named copper, then metal in general, and only later settled onto gold specifically. It is taught in the first year of primary school.
What is the Japanese symbol for gold?
金 is the written symbol, and it heads the whole metal family in the writing system: 銀 (silver), 鉄 (iron), 銅 (copper), 鋼 (steel). Japan’s most famous physical symbol of gold is Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, whose top two floors are covered in gold leaf.
How do you write kin in Japanese?
金 is the kanji. きん is hiragana and キン is katakana. Be aware that kin is a heavily loaded sound in Japanese with many homophones, including 銀 (gin, silver) as a near neighbor and 菌 (kin, bacteria) as an exact one, so the kanji is what removes the ambiguity in writing.
Is 金 the same character in Chinese?
Yes, as a standalone character. Simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, and Japanese all write it 金 and all use it for gold and metal. The one difference appears when it acts as a radical inside another character: simplified Chinese compresses it to 钅, while Japanese and traditional Chinese keep the full form.
Why does 金 mean both gold and money?
Because the character named metal before it named gold, and coinage was metal. The reading splits the senses in practice: kin leans toward gold and kane toward money, so お金 is cash and 金メダル is a gold medal. Words like 現金 (cash) and 料金 (a fee) all sit on the money side.