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Kanji for Dawn
The kanji most commonly used for "Dawn" are 暁、曙、旦.
暁
Kanji that mean Dawn
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暁
dawn, daybreak
Also associated with to instruct.
Onyomi: gyoh, kyoh Kunyomi: akatsuki, sato.ru 12 strokes Jōyō
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曙
dawn, beginning
Onyomi: sho Kunyomi: akebono 17 strokes Jinmeiyō
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旦
dawn, morning
Also associated with tomorrow.
Onyomi: dan, tan Kunyomi: aki.raka, akira, asa, ashita, tadashi 5 strokes Jōyō
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黎
black, many, dawn
Onyomi: rei, ri Kunyomi: kuro.i 15 strokes Jinmeiyō
暁 (akatsuki / gyō) is the dawn — the dark just breaking, the hour of the moon’s last light. Classical Japanese counted it as the lovers’ hour, when night visits ended; 暁 in poetry is departure and promise at once. It also means “in the event of”: 成功の暁には, “when success dawns”. The name Akatsuki has ridden everything from battleships to spacecraft — Japan’s Venus probe carries it now.
曙 (akebono / sho) is first light — the sky whitening. The Pillow Book opens with it: 春はあけぼの, “in spring, the dawn” — the most famous first line in Japanese prose. A grand sumo champion took it as his ring name; as a given name it glows.
黎明 (reimei) supplies 黎 — the dark-before-light — and means the dawn of an era: 黎明期 is any field’s earliest age. And 旦 is the bare sun on the horizon. Four dawns: the parting hour 暁, the whitening 曙, the era’s opening 黎, the horizon line 旦.
Words using Dawn kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
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一旦
いったん
once; for a short time; briefly
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元旦
がんたん
New Year's Day; first day of the year; New Year's morning
Before you use Dawn kanji
暁 is the connoisseur's dawn — darkness turning, promise implicit — and reads beautifully. 曙 carries the Pillow Book's blessing and a champion's name. 黎明 in full means "the dawn of an age", ideal for beginnings. All are safe and literary; choose by how much night you want left in the picture.