Shadow in Japanese is 影, said kage. Fifteen strokes, built from 景 on the left and the three-stroke element 彡 on the right. The on’yomi is エイ (ei), which carries most of the compounds. Written in hiragana it is かげ, and in katakana カゲ.
Shadow in Japanese
Shadow in Japanese is 影 (kage), the dark shape a body throws when light hits it. The same word also covers a silhouette, a reflection in water, and a figure glimpsed at a distance, which is a wider job than English gives its word.
There is a second character read kage: 陰. It means shade, the cool side, the hidden aspect of a thing, and it is the 陰 of in-you, the Japanese reading of yin and yang. The split is worth learning because it is not a matter of style. 影 is the shadow you cast. 陰 is the shade you stand in. A tree throws 影 onto the path and offers 陰 to sit in, and the two words are not interchangeable in that sentence.
The Kanji for Shadow: 影
- Character: 影
- On’yomi: エイ (ei)
- Kun’yomi: かげ (kage)
- Stroke count: 15
- General meaning: shadow, silhouette, phantom, figure
- Radical: 彡, the “bristle” or “hair” radical, Kangxi radical 59, called さんづくり (sanzukuri) in Japanese
Japanese Symbol for Shadow
影 is a phono-semantic compound, and unusually for a character this evocative, the components are dry.
The left side is 景 (kei), meaning scenery or a view, and it is there for the sound rather than the sense. 景 itself is 日 (sun) over 京 (capital city), which is why it once meant sunlight and brightness before it drifted toward landscape. So there is a sun buried in the character for shadow, which is honest enough: no light, no shadow.
The right side is 彡, three short strokes slanting the same way. It is usually glossed as hair or bristles, and it turns up in characters concerned with patterns, markings, and surface appearance: 彩 (colour), 形 (shape), 彫 (carving). Here it marks 影 as being about how something looks rather than what it is.
Put together, the honest reading is a character about the appearance thrown off by light. The poetry people find in 影 is real, but it lives in Japanese usage rather than in the drawing.
How to Write 影 in Japanese
Fifteen strokes, left side first and then the right, which is the standard order for any left-right kanji.
景 takes twelve of them. Write 日 at the top in four strokes, its frame before the horizontal inside and the closing bottom line last. Then 京 below in eight: the small mark at the top, the long horizontal under it, then the flat 口 element, then the four strokes of the base with its central hook and the two short legs.
The final three strokes are 彡 on the right, written top to bottom, each a short curved sweep down to the left, each roughly parallel to the last. They should read as a set, evenly spaced, slightly staggered so the group leans. If they crowd together the character loses its rhythm, and 彡 is the part that gives 影 its motion.
At fifteen strokes this is a dense character. It needs width, and it needs the 日 compartment kept open.
How to Say Shadow in Japanese
Kage is two even beats: “kah-geh.” The g is hard, as in “get,” never soft as in “gem.” The a is open, as in “father,” and the e is short, as in “bed.” Neither beat takes stress.
Real sentences:
- 木の影が長くなった。(Ki no kage ga nagaku natta.) The tree’s shadow grew long.
- 影が壁に映っている。(Kage ga kabe ni utsutte iru.) A shadow is cast on the wall.
- 彼の影響を受けました。(Kare no eikyou o ukemashita.) I was influenced by him.
- 母の面影がある。(Haha no omokage ga aru.) She has a look of her mother about her.
- 遠くに人影が見えた。(Tooku ni hitokage ga mieta.) I saw a figure in the distance.
Words and Compounds With 影
- 影響 (eikyou): influence, effect, impact. Easily the most common word on this list and the one you will meet first.
- 面影 (omokage): the traces of a face, a resemblance, the lingering impression of someone. Quietly one of the most beautiful words in Japanese.
- 人影 (hitokage): the figure of a person, a human shape at a distance.
- 影法師 (kagebōshi): a silhouette, literally shadow priest.
- 撮影 (satsuei): photography or filming, literally capturing the image.
- 投影 (touei): projection, in both the optical and the psychological sense.
- 幻影 (gen’ei): a phantom, an illusion, a vision.
- 影武者 (kagemusha): a body double, literally shadow warrior.
- 影絵 (kagee): shadow pictures, shadow puppetry.
- 影踏み (kagefumi): shadow tag, the children’s game where you chase the shadow instead of the person.
Shadow in Japanese Culture
Japanese aesthetics gives shadow more standing than Western tradition usually does. Rather than treating darkness as the absence of the good thing, it treats the two as a single arrangement in which the shadow does part of the work.
That is the ground yugen grows in: the profound, half-glimpsed depth that comes from something being partly obscured rather than fully lit. A mountain behind cloud, a figure receding into mist. The obscuring is not an obstacle to the beauty, it is the mechanism. The related idea of ma, the charged interval or negative space, works the same way. What is left out shapes what is there.
影武者 has a concrete history behind it. A kagemusha was a decoy who impersonated a warlord, keeping enemies uncertain about whether the real man was alive, present, or in command. Akira Kurosawa built his 1980 film Kagemusha around exactly that job, casting a petty thief as the double of a dying Sengoku lord. It shared the Palme d’Or at Cannes that year.
And 面影 is the word to sit with. It names what is left of a face after the face is gone: the mother you see in a grown daughter, the town you remember inside the town that replaced it. English needs a sentence. Japanese needs three syllables.
As a Tattoo
影 is a strong choice for anyone drawn to the darker or quieter half of a pair, and it is more interesting than the obvious characters because its meaning is broad without being vague. It says shadow, silhouette, figure, phantom. All of those readings are live at once.
Be clear on what it is not. 影 does not mean darkness as a condition. That is 闇 (yami). It does not mean shade or the yin principle either; that is 陰, a different character read the same way. If your reference image or your artist’s source shows 陰 where you asked for 影, the meaning has shifted and you should stop.
Pairings behave. 影 combines into ordinary words rather than private phrases, so check any second character. 幻影 (gen’ei) reads as illusion, 投影 (touei) as projection. Neither is wrong, but neither is neutral.
On script: 影 is written identically in Japanese, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese. The form is safe; only the reading changes, from kage to yǐng in Mandarin.
Fifteen strokes make this a character that needs size. The 日 element and the gaps between the three strokes of 彡 both close up as ink spreads, so avoid small work on fingers or behind the ear. A forearm, calf, or shoulder blade gives it the room the density requires.
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 shadow in Japanese?
You say kage, written 影. Two flat beats, “kah-geh,” with a hard g and no stress on either syllable. It covers a cast shadow, a silhouette, a reflection, and a figure seen at a distance. The on’yomi ei appears in compounds such as 影響 (eikyou, influence) and 撮影 (satsuei, filming).
What is the kanji for shadow?
The kanji for shadow is 影, fifteen strokes. It joins 景 (kei, scenery), which supplies the sound and contains a sun element, with 彡, the three-stroke bristle radical, Kangxi number 59, which marks characters about surface appearance. Its readings are かげ (kage) and エイ (ei).
What is the Japanese symbol for shadow?
影 is the written symbol. Read literally it is a character about how a thing appears under light, since 景 once meant sunlight and 彡 marks pattern and surface. Japanese also has 陰 (kage), meaning shade or the hidden side, which is a different character with a different job.
How do you write kage in Japanese?
影 is the kanji for a cast shadow and the standard written form. かげ is hiragana, used in casual writing and in children’s books. カゲ is katakana, common in titles and branding. Note that 陰 is also read kage but means shade, so the kanji you choose changes the meaning.
Is 影 the same character in Chinese?
Yes. 影 is written identically in Japanese, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese, so there is no wrong regional form. The pronunciation differs: kage or ei in Japanese, yǐng in Mandarin. The core meaning of shadow and image carries across all three writing systems.
What is the difference between 影 and 陰?
Both are read kage, and the split is about what the light is doing. 影 is the shadow a body casts, and by extension a silhouette, reflection, or distant figure. 陰 is shade, the shaded side, the hidden aspect, and the in of in-you, the Japanese reading of yin and yang. A tree casts 影 and offers 陰.