One of the best Japanese Kanji dictionary.

Share this page

Kanji for Blood

The kanji most commonly used for "Blood" is 血.

Kanji that mean Blood

  • blood, lineage, passion

    Onyomi: ketsu Kunyomi: chi 6 strokes Jōyō

血 (chi / ketsu) is blood — a drop falling into a ritual vessel, which is what the character’s dish-shape 皿 remembers: blood as offering, older than blood as biology. Modern Japanese uses it both clinically and warmly: 血液 (blood, medical), 献血 (blood donation), but also 血筋 — bloodline — and the tender phrase 血の通った, “with blood flowing through it”: humane, alive.

Japan’s famous fixation is 血液型 — blood type as personality. Type A is careful, B free-spirited, O big-hearted, AB enigmatic; magazines print horoscopes by it and everyone knows theirs. No science supports it and no one entirely disbelieves it.

The idioms cut both directions: 血と汗 (blood and sweat) honours effort; 血も涙もない — “without blood or tears” — damns the heartless; and 血は水よりも濃い agrees with English that blood is thicker than water.

Words using Blood kanji

Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.

  • 血液 けつえき Listen blood
  • 出血 しゅっけつ Listen bleeding; haemorrhage; hemorrhage
  • 流血 りゅうけつ Listen bloodshed
  • 血圧 けつあつ Listen blood pressure
  • 血管 けっかん Listen blood vessel; vein
  • 白血病 はっけつびょう Listen leukemia; leukaemia

Before you use Blood kanji

血 on skin reads visceral — Japanese eyes see the clinical and the violent before the familial. If the meaning is kinship, 絆 (bonds) or 血縁 (blood relation) carry it without the splash; if it is effort, 血と汗 tells that story. Wear 血 alone only if you want the raw word.

Other meanings to explore

See all kanji by meaning →

Share this link via

Or copy link