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Kanji for Eye
The kanji most commonly used for "Eye" are 目、眼、眸.
目
Kanji that mean Eye
目 (me / moku) is the eye — the pictograph turned on its side, a pupil boxed in lids. It sees far beyond anatomy: 目的 is a goal (“the eye’s target”), 目次 a table of contents, 注目 attention, and the grammar of experience runs on it — ひどい目に遭う is to “meet a terrible eye”: to go through something awful. Japanese counts ordinals with it too: 三番目, the third.
眼 (gan / manako) is the eye at higher resolution — the organ and the insight. 眼鏡 (megane) are glasses; 眼科 the eye clinic; and 眼力 is the power of discernment. The martial and artistic traditions prize 心眼, the mind’s eye that sees what sight cannot.
眸 (hitomi / bō) is the pupil — poetry’s eye: つぶらな眸, limpid eyes. The name Hitomi (瞳 or 眸) gives it to daughters. And the proverb settles where truth lives: 目は口ほどに物を言う — the eyes say as much as the mouth.
Words using Eye kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
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目標
もくひょう
goal; target; aim
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眼鏡
メガネ
glasses; eyeglasses; spectacles
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目的
もくてき
purpose; goal; aim
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主眼
しゅがん
main purpose; chief aim; focus
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注目
ちゅうもく
notice; attention; observation
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眼科
がんか
ophthalmology
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項目
こうもく
item; heading; category
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肉眼
にくがん
naked eye; the physical eye
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名目
めいもく
name; title; appellation
Before you use Eye kanji
目 alone reads as the plain word "eye" — or a grammar fragment — and rarely lands as art. The strong choices are 心眼 (the mind's eye) for insight, or 瞳 (pupil — also a beloved name) for the tender register. Buddhist iconography already owns the third-eye idea; 開眼 ("opening the eye") is enlightenment itself.