Share this link via
Or copy link
Kanji for Stone
The kanji most commonly used for "Stone" is 石.
石
Kanji that mean Stone
-
石
stone
Also associated with hard, inflexible.
Onyomi: koku, seki, shaku Kunyomi: ishi 5 strokes Jōyō
石 (ishi / seki) is stone — a cliff with a rock fallen at its base, five strokes old as the hills. It is the stone of gardens (石庭 — Ryōan-ji’s raked-gravel masterpiece is the world’s most famous), of go (碁石, the black and white stones), of jewels (宝石, “treasure stone”) and of resolve: 意志が石のように固い, will as hard as stone.
Old Japan even measured wealth in it: the koku 石, the rice a person eats in a year, priced every samurai domain — a million-石 lord was the highest tier. And medicine kept its blunt honesty: 胆石 is a gallstone.
The proverb everyone learns is 石の上にも三年 — “three years even on a stone”: sit long enough and the coldest seat warms; persistence pays. 石橋を叩いて渡る — tapping a stone bridge before crossing — is the national idiom for prudence.
Around it: 岩 (boulder, crag), 砂 (sand), 磨 (to polish — what stone teaches).
Words using Stone kanji
Everyday Japanese vocabulary built from the characters above.
-
石油
せきゆ
oil; petroleum; kerosene
-
化石
かせき
fossil; petrifaction; petrification
-
石炭
せきたん
coal
-
石橋
いしばし
stone bridge
-
宝石
ほうせき
gem; jewel; precious stone
-
土石
どせき
earth and stones
Before you use Stone kanji
石 is elemental and honest — endurance, the three-years-on-a-stone patience, the garden's stillness. It reads plain rather than poetic; for grandeur choose 岩 (crag), and for the polished result of persistence, 磨 (to polish oneself) tells the next chapter of the same story.