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Kanji for Island
The kanji most commonly used for "Island" is 島.
島
Kanji that mean Island
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島
island
Also associated with isle.
Onyomi: toh Kunyomi: shima 10 strokes Jōyō
島 (shima / tō) is the island — and the character is a small poem: a bird 鳥 alighting on a mountain 山 rising from the sea, the mountain-top where birds rest mid-crossing. Japan being an archipelago of six thousand islands, the character is everywhere: 列島 (the island chain), 半島 (peninsula — “half island”), 無人島 (desert island), and the place names 広島 (Hiroshima), 徳島, 島根.
Matsushima — 松島, “pine islands” — moved Bashō to the point of proverbial speechlessness, and 桃太郎’s demon island 鬼ヶ島 gave folklore its destination. As a surname element (島田, 中島, 島崎) it anchors thousands of families to some ancestral shore.
The underworld borrowed it too: a gangster’s turf is his 縄張り or, in older slang, his shima — territory as island. And 島国根性, “island-nation temperament”, is Japan’s own self-critical phrase for insularity.
Words using Island kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
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朝鮮半島
ちょうせんはんとう
Korean peninsula
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中島
なかじま
island in a pond or river
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列島
れっとう
archipelago; chain of islands
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半島
はんとう
peninsula; Korea
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小島
こじま
small island; islet
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島根
しまね
Shimane (prefecture)
Before you use Island kanji
島 is picturesque and safe — bird, mountain, sea in one character — ideal for an islander or an island-hearted traveller. The yakuza slang for turf is spoken, not worn, and will not haunt a tattoo. Pair with 波 (wave) or 海 (sea) and the seascape completes itself.