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Kanji for River
The kanji most commonly used for "River" are 川、河、江.
川
Kanji that mean River
川 (kawa) is a river drawn as three lines of current — one of the simplest characters in the language and one of the most common in Japanese place names and surnames: 川崎, 石川, 香川. Any river in Japan, from a mountain stream to the Shinano, is a 川.
河 (kawa / ka) is the continental river. In origin it was the proper name of the Yellow River, and it kept the scale: 河口 is a river mouth, 運河 a canal, 銀河 — “the silver river” — the Milky Way. Japanese rivers are 川; vast foreign ones like the Amazon are 河.
江 (e / kō) began as the Yangtze’s name and in Japan came to mean an inlet or creek — the character of 江戸, Edo, “bay door”, old Tokyo. Around them: 流 (current), 滝 (waterfall), 瀬 (shallows), 澪 (waterway; a lovely name kanji).
Words using River kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
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小川
おがわ
stream; brook; creek
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河川
かせん
rivers
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江戸
えど
Edo (shogunate capital; former name of Tokyo); Yedo
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河口
かこう
mouth of river; estuary
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堀江
ほりえ
canal
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谷川
たにがわ
mountain stream
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大河
たいが
large river; epic (of a novel, drama, etc.); long-form
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江戸時代
えどじだい
Edo period (1603-1868)
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川上
かわかみ
upper reaches of a river; upstream
Before you use River kanji
川 is clean, ancient and unambiguous — flowing water in three strokes, a good minimal tattoo. 河 reads grander (continental rivers, the Milky Way in 銀河). Neither has any negative sense; just avoid 江 alone unless you mean an inlet — to modern eyes it mostly evokes Edo-period Tokyo.