Water in Japanese is 水, read mizu. Four strokes, drawn as a central current with two smaller flows breaking off to the sides, which is close to the ancient pictograph of a stream. In compounds the reading switches to sui. It is among the first characters written by every child in Japan.
Water in Japanese
Water in Japanese is 水 (mizu), and that single word is what you use in a restaurant, at a tap, or beside a river. Inside compounds the character is read sui, as in 水曜日 (suiyoubi, Wednesday). One catch: 水 means cold or room-temperature water only. Hot water is a different word, お湯 (oyu).
Japanese treats those as two substances rather than one substance at two temperatures. Ask for 水 at an onsen and you will be handed the cold tap.
The Kanji for Water: 水
- Character: 水
- On’yomi: スイ (sui)
- Kun’yomi: みず (mizu)
- Stroke count: 4
- General meaning: water, liquid, the element of water
- Radical: 水 is itself a radical, Kangxi number 85. On the left side of another character it compresses into 氵, called sanzui, which is how you get 海 (sea), 池 (pond), and 泳 (to swim)
That compressed form is one of the most productive elements in the writing system. Once you can spot 氵, you can guess that an unfamiliar character has something to do with liquid before you know anything else about it.
Japanese Symbol for Water
The Japanese symbol for water is 水, and it is a drawing of moving water rather than still water. A vertical current runs down the middle, hooking at the bottom where the flow catches. Two shorter strokes break away from it, one to each side, the way a stream splits around a rock.
The oldest forms made this even clearer, with a wavy central line and dots for spray on either side. What survived is the skeleton of that: current, and the things that leave the current.
You can see the family resemblance in nearby characters. 氷 (koori, ice) is 水 with a single extra mark added at the upper left, five strokes in total, water with something frozen onto it. And the compressed radical 氵 keeps only the side flows, three quick strokes that read as splash.
How to Write 水 in Japanese
Four strokes, and the rule that governs them is the one for any character with a strong central axis: the middle comes first, the sides come after, and the long right-falling stroke comes last.
Start with the central vertical, drawn top to bottom and finished with a small hook flicking left at the base. Then the strokes on the left side, which break away from the upper part of that vertical. Finish with the long diagonal on the right, pressing outward and downward and ending lower than anything else in the character.
Balance is the whole exercise. The central stroke should be dead upright, and the two sides should mirror each other in weight without being identical in shape. If the right diagonal is too short, 水 tips over to the left.
How to Say Water in Japanese
Mizu is two even beats, “mee-zoo,” with no stress on either. Sui is one beat, said as “swee” rather than “soo-ee.” Oyu, the hot water word, is “oh-yoo.”
Real sentences:
- 水をください。(Mizu o kudasai.) Water, please.
- この水は冷たいです。(Kono mizu wa tsumetai desu.) This water is cold.
- 花に水をやる。(Hana ni mizu o yaru.) I water the flowers.
- 水曜日は休みです。(Suiyoubi wa yasumi desu.) Wednesday is my day off.
- 毎日水泳をしています。(Mainichi suiei o shite imasu.) I swim every day.
The first sentence is the one to have ready. Restaurants in Japan bring water without being asked, usually iced, but 水をください covers you anywhere else.
Words and Compounds With 水
- 水曜日 (suiyoubi): Wednesday. Japanese weekdays run on the classical elements, so a lone 水 on a calendar means Wednesday.
- 香水 (kousui): perfume, literally fragrant water.
- 水族館 (suizokukan): an aquarium.
- 洪水 (kouzui): a flood.
- 水泳 (suiei): swimming.
- 水墨画 (suibokuga): ink wash painting, the tradition behind sumi-e.
- 打ち水 (uchimizu): sprinkling water on the ground outside a house or shop on a hot day, an old and still common way of cooling the air.
- 水商売 (mizu shoubai): the water trade, meaning nightlife, bars, and hostess work.
Water in Japanese Culture
Water in Japan is first of all a purifying substance, and the ritual is built into the architecture. Before entering a Shinto shrine you stop at the basin by the gate and rinse your hands and mouth with a ladle. That practice is temizu, and its deeper form, standing under a cold waterfall or immersing in the sea, is misogi.
Kyoto’s Kiyomizu-dera makes the point in its name, which means Temple of Pure Water. It was founded in 780 at the Otowa waterfall, and the fall still runs there, split into three streams that visitors catch in long-handled ladles and drink. Each stream is said to grant a different blessing, longevity, academic success, or love in life. Drinking from all three is considered greedy.
The classical element sits alongside that. In the Buddhist 五大 (godai, five great elements) the set runs 地水火風空: earth, water, fire, wind, and void. Water is the second, the yielding one, the element that takes the shape of whatever holds it. Martial arts writing borrows the idea as 水の心 (mizu no kokoro), a mind like water, still enough to reflect and quick enough to move. The same quiet runs through the forest streams of shinrin-yoku.
As a Tattoo
水 is one of the best-behaved kanji for skin. Four strokes, strong diagonal symmetry, a natural center point, and enough white space that it will not blur into a blob after a decade. It reads clearly at wrist scale and looks deliberate at shoulder scale.
Know what it says. The bare character means water, plainly, and secondarily Wednesday. It does not by itself say “flow,” “adaptability,” or “calm,” however much those ideas attach to water in English. Japanese readers see the substance first.
If you want the poetic register, consider 海 (umi, sea, 9 strokes), 川 (kawa, river, 3 strokes), or 雫 (shizuku, a droplet, 11 strokes, common in names and lyrics). Each carries mood where 水 carries fact. For an elemental set, 水 pairs naturally with 火 and 木.
Check unchecked pairings, as always. 水 combines into ordinary words with their own meanings, including 水商売 (mizu shoubai), the water trade, which refers to nightlife and hostess bars. It is not the message anyone intends by adding a second character to water.
The character is written identically in Japanese and both forms of Chinese, so the shape is not in question. A brushed rendering lets the two side strokes flick; a printed form keeps the balance strict. Confirm with a native speaker before you ink.
Preview it vertically or horizontally in the Japanese Tattoo Generator, and see how water motifs work across the tradition in our guide to japanese tattoo meanings.
Related Kanji
FAQ
How do you say water in Japanese?
You say mizu, written 水. Two even beats, “mee-zoo,” with no stress. In compound words the same character is read sui, as in 水泳 (suiei, swimming). Remember that mizu covers cold water only; if you want hot water you have to ask for お湯 (oyu).
What is the kanji for water?
The kanji for water is 水, four strokes, and a radical in its own right. It is read mizu alone and sui in compounds. It appears in 水曜日 (suiyoubi, Wednesday), 香水 (kousui, perfume), and 水族館 (suizokukan, aquarium), and it compresses to 氵 on the left of other characters.
What is the Japanese symbol for water?
水 is the symbol, and it draws moving water rather than still water: a central current with a hook at its base and two shorter flows breaking away on either side. Add one mark at the upper left and you get 氷 (koori), ice. Squeeze it to three strokes on the left of a character and you get 氵, the splash radical.
What is the difference between 水 and お湯?
水 (mizu) is cold or room-temperature water. Hot water is お湯 (oyu), written with the character 湯. Japanese treats them as two different substances rather than one substance at two temperatures, so the words are not interchangeable, and asking for 水 will always get you something cold.
Is 水 one of the Japanese elements?
Yes. In the 五大 (godai) set of Buddhist elements the order is 地水火風空: earth, water, fire, wind, and void. Water is the yielding element, the one that takes the shape of its container. Martial arts writing turns that into 水の心 (mizu no kokoro), a mind like water, still enough to reflect and quick enough to move.
Does 水 mean Wednesday?
As shorthand, yes. 水曜日 (suiyoubi) is Wednesday, and calendars abbreviate it to a single 水, because the Japanese week runs on the classical elements plus sun and moon. In a date context the character means the day, not the element, which is worth knowing before you commit it to skin.