Spring in Japanese

Spring in Japanese is 春, said haru. Nine strokes, with the sun radical 日 sitting under a crown of horizontal and diagonal strokes. It is one word for the season, the same in a weather forecast and a poem. Written in hiragana it is はる, and in katakana ハル.

Spring in Japanese

Spring in Japanese is 春, and the spoken word is haru. There is no second option and no formal alternative: 春 is what a farmer says, what a newsreader says, and what a nine-year-old writes in a school diary. The on’yomi シュン (shun) comes out in compounds such as 春分 (shunbun, the vernal equinox) and 青春 (seishun, youth).

The Kanji for Spring: 春

• Character: 春
• On’yomi: シュン (shun)
• Kun’yomi: はる (haru)
• Stroke count: 9
• General meaning: spring, springtime, and by extension youth
• Radical: 日 (sun), Kangxi radical 72, with five strokes added above it

It is taught in the second year of Japanese primary school and sits at JLPT N4, alongside 夏, 秋, and 冬, the other three seasons. Children learn all four together.

Japanese Symbol for Spring

春 is a phono-semantic compound, and the honest account is less picturesque than the internet versions.

At the bottom sits 日, the sun, doing meaning work. The element above it descends from 屯, which supplied the pronunciation in the old forms, and from a grass component that reinforced the sense of things sprouting. Centuries of brush writing fused the two into the crown you see today, five strokes that no longer resemble either source.

So the reliable reading is: sun underneath, growth and sound above. Warmth low down with green things coming up over it is a fair description of the season, but the character was not designed as that picture. It ended up looking like one.

The sun element is the part that survives cleanly. You meet the same 日 at the base of 暑 (atsui, hot) and 早 (hayai, early), and on the left of 時 (ji, time). Spring belongs to the sun’s family of characters, not to the plant’s.

How to Write 春 in Japanese

Nine strokes, top before bottom, which is the rule for any character stacked in tiers.

The crown takes five. Three horizontal strokes first, written from the top down, each one a little longer than the last. Then the left-falling diagonal that cuts through all three from upper right to lower left, and finally the right-falling sweep that crosses it. Those last two strokes make the X shape that gives the character its energy.

Then 日 in four, following the box rule. The left vertical comes down first. The second stroke runs across the top and turns down the right side in one movement. The third is the short bar through the middle. The fourth closes the bottom.

Keep the crown wide and the 日 narrow. Beginners draw the sun too large, and the character starts to look bottom-heavy, like a hat balanced on a crate.

How to Say Spring in Japanese

Haru is two even beats: “hah-roo.” The a is open as in “father,” the u is short and lightly rounded, and the r is the soft Japanese tap. Neither syllable takes an English-style stress. Say them flat.

Real sentences:

• 春が来ました。(Haru ga kimashita.) Spring has come.
• 春が一番好きな季節です。(Haru ga ichiban suki na kisetsu desu.) Spring is my favorite season.
• 日本の春は桜がきれいです。(Nihon no haru wa sakura ga kirei desu.) Cherry blossoms are beautiful in the Japanese spring.
• 春休みに旅行します。(Haruyasumi ni ryokou shimasu.) I’m traveling during the spring holidays.
• もうすぐ春分の日です。(Mou sugu Shunbun no Hi desu.) The Vernal Equinox Day is almost here.

Words and Compounds With 春

Two of these are worth pausing on. 青春 (seishun) is literally blue spring, and it is the ordinary Japanese word for the years between about fifteen and twenty-five, the way English says “the springtime of life” but with far more everyday use. Whole genres of film and manga are described as 青春 stories.

And 小春 (koharu), little spring, does not mean spring at all. It names the mild spell that arrives in late autumn, what English calls an Indian summer. Kanji compounds are dictionary words, not sums.

Spring in Japanese Culture

Spring is when Japan resets. The school year and the corporate financial year both begin in April, so April is when children start new classes and graduates start their first jobs, all of it under blossom.

That blossom is the anchor. Hanami, flower viewing, means sitting under cherry trees with food and company while the petals come down, and the whole point is that the display lasts about a week. The pleasure and the sadness arrive together, which is the clearest everyday example of mono no aware anyone can point at.

The calendar marks spring twice, and the two dates disagree. 立春 (risshun), the first day of spring in the old lunisolar reckoning, falls around February 4, when Japan is still cold. 春分の日 (Shunbun no Hi), Vernal Equinox Day, falls on March 20 or 21 and has been a public holiday since 1948, when it replaced a Shinto imperial rite. Families visit graves that week.

There is even a named wind. 春一番 (haruichiban) is the first strong southerly gale to blow through after 立春, announced on the news like a minor national event.

As a Tattoo

春 is a good tattoo character. Nine strokes give it substance without crowding, and the crossed diagonals over the sun make a shape with real movement, which brush styles handle beautifully. The meaning is clear to any Japanese reader: spring, and by extension youth and beginnings.

Know what it does not say. 春 is the season. It is not “rebirth” or “new beginnings” as an abstract concept, however often it is sold that way. If renewal is the idea, the imagery around the character carries it, not the character itself.

Check what you put next to it. 春 has an old euphemistic use for sex, which is why 春画 (shunga) means erotic woodblock prints and 売春 (baishun) means prostitution. On its own 春 is completely innocent and reads as the season. Beside the wrong second character it does not, so run every pairing past someone who reads Japanese.

On script: 春 is written identically in Japanese, simplified Chinese, and traditional Chinese, so there is no form to choose between. Only the sound differs, haru or shun in Japanese and chūn in Mandarin.

Placement is forgiving. The character is roughly square and balances well on the forearm, the shoulder blade, or the ribs. Avoid very small work: the three stacked horizontals in the crown need clear gaps, and they are the first thing to run together as ink spreads over the years.

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

• Winter in Japanese
• Summer in Japanese
• Sun in Japanese
• Kanji for Tree

FAQ

How do you say spring in Japanese?

You say haru, written 春. Two flat beats, “hah-roo,” with no stress on either and a soft tapped r. It is the only ordinary word for the season, used in weather forecasts and poetry alike. In compounds the character switches to its on’yomi shun, as in 春分 (shunbun, the vernal equinox).

What is the kanji for spring?

The kanji for spring is 春, nine strokes. It is built on 日, the sun radical, number 72, with a five-stroke crown above it descending from a phonetic element and a grass component. Its readings are はる (haru) and シュン (shun), and it is taught in second grade.

What is the Japanese symbol for spring?

春 is the written symbol: the sun with growth stacked over it. Japan’s visual symbol for spring is something else entirely, the cherry blossom, 桜 (sakura), which appears on coins, packaging, and police insignia. If you want spring at a glance, 桜 reads faster than 春 to most people.

How do you write haru in Japanese?

Three ways, all correct in different contexts. 春 is the kanji and the standard written form. はる is hiragana, common in children’s books and in given names. ハル is katakana, which gives the word a modern, slightly stylized feel and shows up in brand names and manga titles.

Is 春 the same character in Chinese?

Yes. Simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, and Japanese all write it as 春, with no variant forms. The meaning carries across too: spring in both languages, with the same figurative reach into youth. Only the sound changes, haru or shun in Japanese and chūn in Mandarin.

What does 青春 mean?

青春 (seishun) is literally blue spring, and it means youth or adolescence, roughly the years from mid-teens to mid-twenties. It is an everyday word rather than a poetic one, used for coming-of-age films, school memories, and sports manga. Blue here carries the older Japanese sense that also covers green and freshness.