Rain in Japanese is 雨, said ame. Eight strokes, and it is a picture: a cloud with drops falling out of it. The on’yomi is ウ (u), and the character shifts to ama- and -same inside compounds. Written in hiragana it is あめ, and in katakana アメ.
Rain in Japanese
Rain in Japanese is 雨 (ame), one word for the water and the weather both. The reading changes shape depending on where the character sits, and this is the one thing worth getting straight early.
Alone, and at the end of many compounds, it is ame: 大雨 (ooame, heavy rain). In front of another element it becomes ama-: 雨傘 (amagasa, umbrella), 雨具 (amagu, rain gear). After certain elements it voices to -same: 小雨 (kosame, light rain). And the on’yomi ウ (u) handles the technical vocabulary: 雨天 (uten, rainy weather), 雨季 (uki, rainy season).
One caution for beginners. 雨 (ame) and 飴 (ame, hard candy) are homophones, distinguished in speech by pitch. Context sorts them out and nobody actually gets confused, but the pair turns up in every textbook.
The Kanji for Rain: 雨
- Character: 雨
- On’yomi: ウ (u)
- Kun’yomi: あめ (ame), あま- (ama-), -さめ (-same)
- Stroke count: 8
- General meaning: rain, rainy weather
- Radical: 雨 (rain), Kangxi radical 173, which is also its own radical and sits as a lid on top of other characters
Japanese Symbol for Rain
雨 is a pictogram, and it is one of the clearest surviving ones in daily use. There is no phonetic component hiding inside it and no borrowed sound. It is a drawing.
The oldest forms show a horizontal line for the sky, a curved shape below it for the underside of a cloud, and drops falling through the space beneath. In the modern character the top horizontal is still the sky, the box below is the cloud, the long vertical runs down through the middle of it, and the four short marks inside are the falling drops. Two on the left, two on the right, still coming down.
The top stroke was added later than the rest, which is a small detail but a nice one: the sky was drawn in after the rain.
As a radical, 雨 flattens into a lid and sits over other weather characters. 雪 (yuki, snow), 雲 (kumo, cloud), 雷 (kaminari, thunder), 電 (den, electricity), 霧 (kiri, fog). Anything falling from or happening in the sky wears this hat.
How to Write 雨 in Japanese
Eight strokes, and the rule is the usual one for enclosing shapes: the frame before the contents, and the contents before the closing.
Begin with the horizontal at the very top, the sky line. Then build the box below it: the left vertical, then the stroke that forms the top edge and turns down the right side with a small hook. Then the long vertical straight down the centre.
The last four strokes are the drops. They go inside the box, left pair first, top to bottom, then the right pair, top to bottom. Each is a short mark angled slightly, and they should sit clear of the walls and of the centre line.
The four drops are what fails when 雨 is written small. They blur into the frame and the character reads as a plain box. Give the interior space, which usually means writing 雨 slightly wider than you first want to.
How to Say Rain in Japanese
Ame is two even beats: “ah-meh.” The a is open, as in “father,” and the e is short, as in “bed.” No stress on either beat.
Real sentences:
- 雨が降っています。(Ame ga futte imasu.) It is raining.
- 明日は雨だと思います。(Ashita wa ame da to omoimasu.) I think it will rain tomorrow.
- 雨宿りをしましょう。(Amayadori o shimashou.) Let us take shelter from the rain.
- 雨が上がったら出かけます。(Ame ga agattara dekakemasu.) I will go out once the rain stops.
- 傘を忘れて大雨に降られた。(Kasa o wasurete ooame ni furareta.) I forgot my umbrella and got caught in a downpour.
Note the verb. Rain does not “rain” in Japanese, it 降る (furu), falls. The same verb covers snow.
Words and Compounds With 雨
- 雨天 (uten): rainy weather. The word on the sign when an event is cancelled.
- 大雨 (ooame): heavy rain, a downpour.
- 小雨 (kosame): light rain, drizzle.
- 梅雨 (tsuyu): the rainy season, literally the plum rain.
- 雨具 (amagu): rain gear.
- 雨傘 (amagasa): an umbrella for rain, as opposed to 日傘 (higasa), a parasol.
- 雨宿り (amayadori): taking shelter from the rain, and a lovely small word for a small act.
- 雨上がり (ameagari): the moment just after the rain stops.
- 五月雨 (samidare): early-summer rain, a classical word carried into poetry.
- 時雨 (shigure): a passing shower in late autumn or early winter.
- 雨男 (ameotoko): a man who seems to bring rain wherever he goes. 雨女 (ameonna) is the female version, and both get used affectionately when an outing gets soaked.
梅雨 and 五月雨 and 時雨 are all jukujikun, compounds where the kanji were chosen for meaning and the reading was assigned to the pair rather than to either character. You cannot sound them out. You learn them whole.
Rain in Japanese Culture
Japan has a rainy season with a name, a season of its own, and its own vocabulary. 梅雨 (tsuyu, also read baiu) runs from roughly early June to mid-July across most of the country, approximately 7 June to 20 July in the Kansai and Kanto regions. Okinawa gets it about a month earlier, from early May to mid-June, and Hokkaido has no pronounced tsuyu at all, because the front usually weakens before it arrives.
The characters mean plum rain, and the name comes from the season coinciding with plums ripening. Its arrival and departure are announced on the news as 梅雨入り (tsuyuiri) and 梅雨明け (tsuyuake), and an unusually dry one has its own word, 空梅雨 (karatsuyu).
The charm against it is てるてる坊主 (teru teru bouzu), a small doll of tissue paper or cloth hung by a window to ask for fine weather. The name means roughly shine shine monk, from 照る (teru, to shine) and 坊主 (bouzu, a Buddhist monk), the idea being a bald head gleaming in sunlight. The custom traces back through the Heian period to a Chinese practice and became widely popular among city dwellers in the Edo period, with a reference appearing in writing by 1830. A nursery rhyme released in 1921 fixed it in every Japanese childhood since.
Rain is also one of the reliable engines of Japanese poetic feeling. It is weather that stops you, keeps you indoors, and makes you notice that the season is passing, which is close to the working definition of mono no aware. The named rains, samidare and shigure, exist because classical poetry needed to say which passing it meant.
As a Tattoo
雨 is a quiet, well-balanced character and an unusual choice, which is part of its appeal. Eight strokes give it a settled, symmetrical shape that sits well on its own without needing a companion.
Be clear on the register. 雨 is the plain noun for rain and rainy weather. In Japanese it does not carry the cleansing or renewal symbolism that rain often carries in English, and it does not read as melancholy on its own either. It reads as weather. The feeling people are reaching for usually lives in the named rains instead, in shigure and samidare, or in mono no aware as a concept.
Think before adding a second character. 雨男 (ameotoko) means a man who brings bad weather, which is a joke rather than a sentiment. 雨天 (uten) is the word on a cancellation notice. Kanji placed together form real dictionary words.
On script: 雨 is written identically in Japanese, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese, so there is no wrong regional form to worry about. Only the reading shifts, from ame to yǔ in Mandarin.
The four interior drops are the whole risk here. As ink spreads over the years they migrate toward the frame and the centre line, and a small 雨 eventually reads as a filled box. Keep it generously sized and keep the interior open. Forearm, calf, and upper back all suit it.
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 rain in Japanese?
You say ame, written 雨. Two flat beats, “ah-meh,” with no stress on either. To say it is raining, use 雨が降っています (ame ga futte imasu), since rain falls in Japanese rather than raining. The on’yomi u appears in compounds such as 雨天 (uten, rainy weather).
What is the kanji for rain?
The kanji for rain is 雨, eight strokes. It is a pictogram: a sky line at the top, a cloud shape below it, and four drops falling inside. It is Kangxi radical 173 and forms the lid of other weather characters, including 雪 (snow), 雲 (cloud), and 雷 (thunder).
What is the Japanese symbol for rain?
雨 is the written symbol, and it is one of the few common kanji that is still recognisably a drawing. The horizontal at the top is the sky, added later than the rest of the character. The box beneath is the underside of a cloud, and the four short marks inside it are the falling drops.
How do you write ame in Japanese?
雨 is the kanji for rain and the standard written form. あめ is hiragana and アメ is katakana. Be careful in speech: 飴 (ame) means hard candy and is a homophone separated only by pitch. Our guide to hiragana vs katakana explains when each script fits.
Is 雨 the same character in Chinese?
Yes. 雨 is written identically in Japanese, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese, so there is no regional variant to avoid. Only the pronunciation differs: ame or u in Japanese, yǔ in Mandarin. It serves as the same weather radical in all three writing systems.
What is the Japanese rainy season called?
梅雨 (tsuyu, also read baiu), literally plum rain. It runs roughly early June to mid-July across most of Japan, about a month earlier in Okinawa, and barely registers in Hokkaido. Its start and end are announced as 梅雨入り and 梅雨明け, and people hang てるてる坊主 dolls to ask for a break in it.