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Kanji for Butterfly
The kanji most commonly used for "Butterfly" is 蝶.
蝶
Kanji that mean Butterfly
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蝶
butterfly
Also associated with insect.
Onyomi: choh 15 strokes Jinmeiyō
蝶 (chō) is the butterfly — the insect radical 虫 beside a phonetic of thin leaves: a leaf that flies. The word is usually doubled affectionately as 蝶々 (chōchō), which is also the name of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly in Japan and of the folk song every child sings.
The butterfly’s symbolism is layered: in Japan as in China it carries souls — a butterfly entering the house may be a visiting spirit — and Zhuangzi’s dream of being a butterfly (胡蝶の夢) gave East Asia its most famous meditation on reality and illusion. Samurai families, notably the Taira, flew butterfly crests; the insect that transforms utterly was a natural emblem of rebirth.
In fashion and flowers it never rests: 蝶ネクタイ is the bow tie; 蝶結び the bow knot on every gift — a knot chosen for celebrations that may happily repeat, because it unties and reties.
Around it: 蛾 (moth, its night twin), 虫 (insect), 花 (the flower it visits), 夢 (the dream it may be).
Words using Butterfly kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
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蝶々
ちょうちょう
butterfly
Before you use Butterfly kanji
蝶 is graceful, transformative and safe — rebirth, the soul, the Zhuangzi dream. In Japan the butterfly is also a classic women's-fashion motif with a faintly nightlife shimmer (hostess-club imagery uses it), which most wearers find glamorous rather than troubling. 胡蝶の夢 — "the butterfly dream" — is the phrase for the philosophically inclined.