Light in Japanese is 光, said hikari. Six strokes, and the oldest forms show fire above a kneeling person: a flame carried over someone’s head. The on’yomi is コウ (kou), and the verb form is 光る (hikaru, to shine). Written in hiragana it is ひかり, and in katakana ヒカリ.
Light in Japanese
Light in Japanese is 光 (hikari), the noun, with 光る (hikaru) as the verb. 光 is light as a substance and a phenomenon: sunlight, a beam, radiance, the thing that travels and lands on you.
Two nearby characters do different jobs, and mixing them up is the most common mistake here.
明 (mei) is bright, as a quality. 明るい (akarui) means bright, well lit, cheerful. A room is 明るい; it is not 光. 灯 is a lamp light, the light source in a fixture, as in 電灯 (dentou, an electric light) and 灯り (akari, the glow from a lamp). So 光 is the light itself, 明 is the state of being lit, and 灯 is the thing you switch on.
The Kanji for Light: 光
- Character: 光
- On’yomi: コウ (kou)
- Kun’yomi: ひかり (hikari), ひか(る) (hikaru, “to shine”)
- Stroke count: 6
- General meaning: light, ray, radiance
- Radical: 儿, the “legs” or human-legs radical, Kangxi radical 10, called ひとあし (hitoashi) or にんにょう (ninnyou) in Japanese
Japanese Symbol for Light
光 is an ideogrammic compound, which means the parts were chosen for meaning rather than sound. Both halves mean something, and together they draw a scene.
The top element was originally 火, fire. The bottom was 卩, a kneeling person, which has flattened over time into the 儿 you see now, two strokes standing for a pair of legs. Put together: fire above a person’s head. A torch held up, or a lamp carried, with the flame in the air and the figure beneath it.
That is a genuinely different image from the one behind 明, which joins 日 (sun) and 月 (moon) to mean brightness, or 灯, which is 火 (fire) beside 丁. 光 is the only one of the three with a human being inside it. The light in 光 is light that someone is carrying.
The character also picked up a second sense from that image: glory, honour, the shine that falls on a person. That is why 光栄 (kouei) means honour and 栄光 (eikou) means glory, both built from the same two characters in opposite order.
How to Write 光 in Japanese
Six strokes, top group first, then the horizontal that spans the width, then the two strokes of the base.
The three small strokes at the top come first. They are short, they lean, and they should be spaced evenly so the group reads as one unit rather than three separate marks. Then the long horizontal, which runs wider than anything above it and sets the character’s width.
The base is 儿, two strokes, left before right, the same order as every other kanji. The left is a short stroke slanting down; the right is a vertical that turns and hooks up at the bottom right. That hook is what stops 光 from looking like it has been cut off, and it is the stroke people rush.
Six strokes is nothing, but the balance is fussy. The top group wants to be narrow, the horizontal wants to be wide, and the two legs want to spread. Crowd any of the three and the character reads as cramped.
How to Say Light in Japanese
Hikari is three even beats: “hee-kah-ree.” The i sounds are short, as in “sit,” the a is open as in “father,” and the r is the Japanese tapped r, made with a light flick of the tongue closer to an English d than to a rolled r. No stress on any beat.
Real sentences:
- 光が差し込んできた。(Hikari ga sashikonde kita.) Light came streaming in.
- 星が光っています。(Hoshi ga hikatte imasu.) The stars are shining.
- 光の速さで進む。(Hikari no hayasa de susumu.) It travels at the speed of light.
- 日光がよく当たる部屋です。(Nikkou ga yoku ataru heya desu.) It is a room that gets plenty of sunlight.
- 光栄です。(Kouei desu.) I am honoured.
That last one is worth memorising. 光栄です is what you say when someone praises you or invites you somewhere, and it is built entirely out of the light character.
Words and Compounds With 光
- 光る (hikaru): to shine, to glitter, to gleam. The verb.
- 日光 (nikkou): sunlight, and also the name of the mountain town in Tochigi.
- 観光 (kankou): sightseeing, tourism. Literally to look at the light of a place, and by far the most common word on this list.
- 光栄 (kouei): honour, the feeling of being honoured.
- 栄光 (eikou): glory. The same two characters, reversed.
- 月光 (gekkou): moonlight.
- 稲光 (inabikari): a flash of lightning, literally rice-plant light.
- 蛍光 (keikou): fluorescence. 蛍 (hotaru) is a firefly, so the word is firefly light.
- 光線 (kousen): a ray or beam of light.
- 光陰 (kouin): time. Light and shade together, the passing of days and nights.
光陰 gives Japanese one of its best-known proverbs: 光陰矢の如し (kouin ya no gotoshi), time flies like an arrow. Light and shadow, alternating, moving too fast to catch.
Light in Japanese Culture
The Japanese word English speakers most often fall in love with is a light word, and it does not use this character. Komorebi is written 木漏れ日, tree-leaking sun, and it names the light that comes down through leaves in scattered patches. The character there is 日, the sun itself, because what komorebi describes is not light in general but that specific dappling. Knowing that distinction is a good test of whether you have understood 光.
日光 is worth a detour of its own. It is the ordinary word for sunlight, and it is also the name of a town in the mountains of Tochigi where Tokugawa Ieyasu is buried. The shrine complex there, Nikko Toshogu, was completed in 1617 and became one of the great destinations of the Edo period. Since 1999 it has been part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Sun and light, as a place name.
ひかり is also a common given name, used for girls and occasionally for boys, written 光 or in kana. It carries the same warmth the English word does without sounding old-fashioned.
And 蛍光, firefly light, points at the other half of Japan’s relationship with light: the small, moving, temporary kind. Firefly-watching in early summer, paper lanterns at a festival, the single lamp in a tea room. The tradition tends to prize light that is scarce and shaped rather than light that floods, which is the same instinct behind yugen and its taste for what is half-seen.
As a Tattoo
光 is one of the better single-character choices available. Six strokes, symmetrical, easy to read, and the meaning is warm without being sentimental in a way Japanese would find embarrassing.
It also carries a second sense that most people do not know about, and it is a good one. Because of 光栄 (honour) and 栄光 (glory), 光 has a register of dignity attached to it that the English word light does not. A Japanese reader sees radiance and, faintly behind it, honour.
Know which light you mean. If you want brightness as a mood or a personality, 明 is the character behind 明るい (akarui), cheerful and well lit. If you want a lamp, that is 灯. 光 is the light itself, travelling. Choosing between them is not a stylistic decision.
Check pairings. 光陰 (kouin) means time, not light and shade as a poetic image. 逆光 (gyakkou) is photographic backlighting. Any character you add to 光 will be read as a real word first.
On script: 光 is written identically in Japanese, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese, so there is no wrong regional form. Only the reading changes, from hikari or kou to guāng in Mandarin.
Six clean strokes hold at small sizes better than almost anything else in this library, which makes 光 a genuine option for wrist, ankle, or behind the ear. Just make sure the three top strokes stay separate and the bottom-right hook is not clipped.
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 light in Japanese?
You say hikari, written 光. Three even beats, “hee-kah-ree,” with a tapped r and no stress on any syllable. The verb is 光る (hikaru), to shine. The on’yomi kou carries the compounds: 日光 (nikkou, sunlight), 観光 (kankou, sightseeing), 月光 (gekkou, moonlight).
What is the kanji for light?
The kanji for light is 光, six strokes. It is an ideogrammic compound of 火 (fire) over 卩, a kneeling person, now written as the two-stroke 儿 base, Kangxi radical 10. Its readings are ひかり (hikari), ひかる (hikaru), and コウ (kou).
What is the Japanese symbol for light?
光 is the written symbol, and it is the only one of the three light characters with a person inside it: a flame carried above someone’s head. That image also gave it a second meaning of honour and glory, which is why 光栄 (kouei) means honoured and 栄光 (eikou) means glory.
How do you write hikari in Japanese?
光 is the kanji and the standard written form, also common as a given name. ひかり is hiragana, soft and frequently used for names. ヒカリ is katakana, seen in branding and titles. Our guide to hiragana vs katakana explains when each script fits.
Is 光 the same character in Chinese?
Yes. 光 is written identically in Japanese, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese, so there is no regional form to avoid. Only the pronunciation differs: hikari or kou in Japanese, guāng in Mandarin. The meanings of light, ray, and glory carry across all three.
What is the difference between 光, 明 and 灯?
光 (hikari) is light itself, the thing that travels: sunlight, a beam, radiance. 明 is brightness as a state, seen in 明るい (akarui), bright or cheerful, and it is built from sun and moon together. 灯 is a lamp light, the source in a fixture, as in 電灯 (dentou, an electric light).