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Kanji for Eagle

The kanji most commonly used for "Eagle" is 鷲.

Kanji that mean Eagle

  • eagle

    Also associated with raptor.

    Onyomi: ju, shuu Kunyomi: washi 23 strokes Jinmeiyō

鷲 (washi) is the eagle — the bird radical 鳥 under 就, which lends the sound. It is a rarer, heavier character than most animal kanji: twenty-three strokes, outside the Jōyō list, and all the more imposing for it.

Japan’s most famous eagles are in proper names: 鷲 appears in surnames like 鷲尾 (Washio), and the constellation Aquila is 鷲座, “the Eagle”. The great Buddhist “Vulture Peak” of the sutras is 霊鷲山 — the mountain of the sacred eagle.

The neighbouring bird is 鷹 (taka), the hawk — smaller, and far more prominent in Japanese culture through falconry (鷹狩) and the proverb 能ある鷹は爪を隠す, “the skilled hawk hides its talons”. If you want the raptor as an emblem of held-back strength, Japanese tradition actually points to the hawk.

Before you use Eagle kanji

鷲 is a strong, legitimate choice — the eagle, with no slang or unlucky senses — and its density of strokes reads as deliberate. Know that in Japanese symbolism the hawk 鷹 carries more cultural weight (falconry, hidden talent); the eagle reads more Western, which may be exactly what you want.

Other meanings to explore

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