Snake in Japanese is 蛇, said hebi. Eleven strokes under the insect radical 虫, the old class for creeping creatures. For the zodiac sign, Japanese uses a different character, 巳 (mi), three strokes, and 2025 was a snake year. Written in hiragana hebi is へび, and in katakana ヘビ.
Snake in Japanese
Every Japanese kitchen has a snake in it. Turn on the tap and you are using a 蛇口 (jaguchi), a snake’s mouth, the ordinary word for a faucet. Nobody thinks about the snake. It is just where the water comes out.
The animal is 蛇 (hebi). It is the word for the rat snake in the rice field, the viper on the mountain path, the python in the zoo.
But look at a Japanese New Year card from January 2025 and you will often see a different character under the cartoon snakes: 巳 (mi). That is the snake of the zodiac, the sixth of the twelve signs, and it is only ever used for the calendar. You would never call the creature in your garden a 巳.
So Japanese has two snakes: one you can step on, and one you are born in.
Hebi and Mi Meaning
Hebi (蛇) means snake, any snake. In hiragana it is へび, in katakana ヘビ, and it is said “heh-bee,” two short, even beats. The word grew out of an older form, hemi, and Japanese once had a gentler name as well, くちなわ (kuchinawa), rotten rope, for what a snake looks like lying still in the grass. Biology books and zoos tend to write it in katakana, ヘビ, the way Japanese writes most animal names in science.
Inside compounds the character switches to its on’yomi, ja or da. 大蛇 is a giant serpent, read orochi in myth and daija in plain description. Individual species have their own names: マムシ (mamushi), the Japanese pit viper, ハブ (habu), the pit viper of the southern islands, and アオダイショウ (aodaishou), the big, harmless rat snake of farmyards and old roofs. The rat snake and the habu both have entries in our guide to Japanese animals.
Mi (巳) is the sixth branch of the twelve-sign zodiac, the 十二支 (juunishi). It names the year of the snake, 巳年 (mi-doshi). It once named an hour too, the two hours around ten in the morning, and a direction, south-southeast. In speech people often just say へび年 (hebi-doshi), snake year, but the character on the card is 巳.
The Kanji for Snake: 蛇
- Character: 蛇
- On’yomi: ジャ (ja), ダ (da)
- Kun’yomi: へび (hebi)
- Stroke count: 11
- General meaning: snake, serpent
- Radical: 虫 (insect), Kangxi radical 142
蛇 is a Jōyō kanji, but it is not taught in primary school. It belongs to the secondary-school set and is usually listed at JLPT N1.
The zodiac character is a different case:
- Character: 巳
- On’yomi: シ (shi)
- Kun’yomi: み (mi)
- Stroke count: 3
- General meaning: the sixth zodiac sign, the snake
- Radical: 己 (self), Kangxi radical 49
巳 is not on the Jōyō list at all. It is one of the extra characters approved for personal names, so you will meet it in names and on calendars rather than in a newspaper.
Japanese Symbol for Snake
Both snake characters began as pictures of a snake.
In 蛇, the snake is on the right. 它 was originally a drawing of a snake. Over the centuries Chinese borrowed 它 for other words, and in modern Mandarin it is the pronoun “it,” so the snake needed a new home. Writers added 虫 on the left, the radical for creeping and crawling creatures, which covers insects, worms and reptiles alike. That is the 蛇 we write now: a creature, plus the old picture of a snake.
巳 is a snake curled up on itself, reduced to three strokes. When the twelve branches of the zodiac were paired with animals, the coiled shape and the snake found each other.
As a symbol, the Japanese snake is two things at once. Dictionaries note that people often dislike snakes and call them vindictive, and the same dictionaries note that snakes are treated as messengers of the gods. Both are true, and the second one is why there are snakes at shrines.
How to Write 蛇 in Japanese
Eleven strokes, left side first.
The insect radical 虫 takes six. Write the small box first: the left vertical, the stroke that crosses the top and turns down, then the base. Then the long vertical through the middle, then the short stroke rising from left to right along the bottom, and the dot at the lower right last.
The right side, 它, takes five. The roof comes first, in three: a short dot on top, a small stroke at the left, then the stroke that crosses and turns down with a hook. Underneath it, 匕: a short stroke falling to the left, then the long stroke that drops, bends along the bottom and hooks upward.
巳 takes three: the top stroke that turns down at the right, the middle horizontal, then the long stroke down the left side that curves along the bottom and lifts into a hook. That last stroke must rise all the way and close the top-left corner. Stop it halfway up and you have written 已 (sude ni, already). Leave the corner wide open and it is 己 (onore, self). Three characters, one stroke apart.
How to Say Snake in Japanese
Hebi is “heh-bee,” with a short e as in “bed” and no stress on either beat. Mi is a single short “mee.”
Real sentences:
- 蛇が苦手です。(Hebi ga nigate desu.) I’m not good with snakes.
- 山道で蛇を見た。(Yamamichi de hebi o mita.) I saw a snake on the mountain path.
- 私は巳年生まれです。(Watashi wa mi-doshi umare desu.) I was born in the year of the snake.
- 蛇口を閉めてね。(Jaguchi o shimete ne.) Turn off the tap, will you?
- それは蛇足だよ。(Sore wa dasoku da yo.) That’s one detail too many.
The last sentence is a story in a word. 蛇足 (dasoku), snake legs, comes from an old Chinese tale of a contest to draw a snake. The man who finished first had time to spare, gave his snake legs, and lost.
Words and Compounds With 蛇
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 蛇口 | jaguchi | a tap, a faucet |
| 蛇足 | dasoku | an unnecessary addition |
| 蛇行 | dakou | meandering, winding |
| 蛇腹 | jabara | bellows, accordion folds |
| 蛇の目 | janome | a bull’s-eye ring pattern |
| 長蛇の列 | chouda no retsu | a very long queue |
| 大蛇 | orochi, daija | a giant serpent |
| 毒蛇 | dokuhebi, dokuja | a venomous snake |
| 白蛇 | shirohebi | a white snake |
| 藪蛇 | yabuhebi | stirring up trouble for yourself |
藪蛇 is short for 藪をつついて蛇を出す (yabu o tsutsuite hebi o dasu), poke a thicket and a snake comes out. It is what you say when an innocent question lands you with extra work.
One more idiom pairs the snake with a bigger animal. 竜頭蛇尾 (ryuutou dabi), a dragon’s head and a snake’s tail, is a project that starts grandly and fizzles out. The dragon has its own page at dragon in Japanese.
Snake in Japanese Culture
The snake’s best friend in Japan is a goddess. Benzaiten, the goddess of music, eloquence and fortune, is often identified with 宇賀神 (Ugajin), a god of fortune and food, and in that form she wears a white snake in her crown. That is why the name Ugajin also came to mean a white snake worshipped as a god, and why white snakes are still treated as lucky. You can meet Benzaiten among the other deities in our guide to Japanese gods.
Japan’s most famous serpent is a monster. 八岐大蛇 (Yamata no Orochi), the eight-headed giant snake of the earliest chronicles, was defeated by the storm god Susanoo, who got it drunk on eight vats of sake and cut it apart. Inside its tail he found a sword that became part of the imperial regalia.
The stage has its own snake. In the Noh play Dōjōji, a woman betrayed by a monk turns into a serpent and coils around the temple bell he hides under. The mask at the far end of that transformation is called 蛇 (ja), the snake itself, and you can see it on our hannya mask page.
And every twelve years, the snake has its turn. Japan changes zodiac signs on January 1, not at Chinese New Year, so a Japanese snake year runs from New Year’s Day to New Year’s Eve. The last one was 2025, and the next is 2037. Our Japanese zodiac tool finds your sign. The snake also had an hour, the late morning, which time in Japanese explains.
As a Tattoo
蛇 says snake plainly, and it is a strong, compact character with a long life in Japanese tattooing, where the snake is read as a protector and a sign of renewal rather than temptation. Our guide to japanese tattoo meanings covers the snake motif in full. Know that some Japanese readers still hear the folk sense of a creature that holds a grudge.
If you were born in a snake year and want the sign, the character is 巳, not 蛇. A Japanese reader will read 巳 as the zodiac at once.
Watch the look-alikes. This is the most important warning on the page. 巳 (mi, snake sign), 已 (sude ni, already) and 己 (onore, self) differ only in how far the last stroke climbs on the left. Make sure the artist copies 巳 exactly, with the left side closed all the way to the top.
Check pairings. 毒蛇 is a venomous snake and 蛇足 is a pointless extra. Kanji placed side by side form dictionary words, not a sum of ideas. 白蛇 (shirohebi), a white snake, carries the lucky sense if that is what you want.
On script: 蛇 and 巳 are written identically in Japanese, simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese. In Mandarin they are shé and sì.
Confirm with a native speaker before you ink. You can preview the character in vertical and horizontal layouts with the Japanese Tattoo Generator.
Related Kanji
For the rest of the animals and spirits, browse the kanji library.
Sources and Further Reading
- 常用漢字表 (Jōyō Kanji Table, 2010), Agency for Cultural Affairs the readings ジャ, ダ and へび for 蛇 with 蛇の目, 蛇腹, 大蛇, 蛇行, 蛇足 and 長蛇, and the absence of 巳 from the list
- 蛇 in KANJIDIC2, WWWJDIC, Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group eleven strokes, radical 142 and secondary-school status
- 蛇, Digital Daijisen and Jitsū (Kotobank) hebi from the older hemi, kuchinawa, jaguchi, jabara and ryuutou dabi, the snake as disliked and as a messenger of the gods, and 它 as a snake picture
- 巳, Digital Daijisen, Nihon Kokugo Daijiten and Jitsū (Kotobank) 巳 as a name kanji, the sixth branch, the hour around 10 a.m., south-southeast, and its origin as a picture of a snake
- 宇賀神, Digital Daijisen and Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (Kotobank) Ugajin as a god of fortune identified with Benzaiten, the white snake in the crown, and the white snake worshipped as a god
FAQ
How do you say snake in Japanese?
You say hebi, written 蛇, “heh-bee.” It is the everyday word for any snake. In compounds the character is read ja or da, as in 蛇口 (jaguchi), a tap. For the zodiac sign, the year of the snake, Japanese uses a separate character, 巳 (mi).
What is the kanji for snake?
The kanji for snake is 蛇, eleven strokes. On the left is 虫, the insect radical used for creeping creatures, and on the right is 它, which began as a picture of a snake. Its readings are へび (hebi), ジャ (ja) and ダ (da). It is a Jōyō kanji taught in secondary school.
What is the difference between 蛇 and 巳?
蛇 (hebi) is the animal. 巳 (mi) is the sixth sign of the zodiac, used for the year, the old hour and the direction associated with the snake, and never for the animal itself. 巳 is a three-stroke name kanji outside the Jōyō list. On a New Year card for a snake year, you will see 巳.
When is the year of the snake in Japan?
Snake years come every twelve years: 1989, 2001, 2013, 2025 and next 2037. In Japan the zodiac year starts on January 1, so anyone born in 2025 is a snake, including babies born in January. In the Chinese system the sign changes at Chinese New Year instead.
What does a snake symbolize in Japan?
Fortune and protection, mostly. White snakes are linked to Benzaiten, the goddess of music and fortune, who in her form as Ugajin wears a white snake in her crown, and snakes have long been treated as messengers of the gods. Folk belief also gives the snake a long memory for grudges, so the image cuts both ways.
Is 蛇 the same character in Chinese?
Yes. Japanese, simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese all write 蛇, and it means snake in all three. Mandarin reads it shé. The zodiac character 巳 is shared too, read sì. The difference is that Chinese changes the zodiac sign at Chinese New Year, while Japan changes it on January 1.