Bird + mountain = island: the kanji 島

The kanji for island is 島 (shima). It’s 鳥, a bird, perched on 山, a mountain, and the picture people see in it is a mountain rising out of the sea, where birds can stop and rest. You’ll find it all over the map of Japan, in names like 広島 (Hiroshima) and 鹿児島 (Kagoshima).

What the kanji say

鳥 (tori) is a bird. It began as a picture of one, and you can still make out the head and the eye at the top.

山 (yama) is a mountain: three peaks, and one of the first kanji most learners meet.

In 島, the four dots at the bottom of 鳥 are gone, and the bird sits right on top of the mountain.

Where it really comes from

The bird is really there, but mostly for its sound. 島 is a sound-and-meaning kanji: 山 gives the meaning, a piece of high ground, and 鳥 gives the pronunciation, because in old Chinese the words for bird and island sounded alike.

The resting comes from the Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese dictionary from around 100 CE, which defines an island as one of the mountains dotted around the sea, where you can stop and rest. It doesn’t say who does the resting. Birds fit nicely and make the kanji easy to remember, so the video’s picture is a good memory aid built on a very old definition.

There’s also a variant with the bird beside the mountain, 嶋, which you’ll still see in some family names.

How to use it

• 日本は島国です。

  Nihon wa shimaguni desu.

  Japan is an island nation.

• 夏休みに島へ行きました。

  Natsuyasumi ni shima e ikimashita.

  I went to an island in the summer holidays.

• 沖縄にはきれいな島がたくさんあります。

  Okinawa ni wa kirei na shima ga takusan arimasu.

  There are lots of beautiful islands in Okinawa.

• 無人島に一つだけ持っていくなら、何にする？

  Mujintou ni hitotsu dake motte iku nara, nani ni suru?

  If you could take one thing to a desert island, what would it be?

• しま (shima) often becomes じま (jima) after another word: 宝島 (takarajima) is a treasure island.
• In longer words it’s とう (tou): 半島 (hantou), a peninsula, is “half an island”, and 列島 (rettou) is a chain of islands, as in 日本列島 (Nihon rettou), the islands of Japan.
• 島国 (shimaguni), an island nation, is a word Japanese people often use about their own country.

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

Out at sea, a lone mountain (山) sticks up out of the water. A tired bird (鳥) lands on the peak and tucks its feet away. That’s 島.

The kanji in this lesson

Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.

Draw it

Draw it

Draw it

Sources

• Dong Chinese: 島 (with the Shuowen Jiezi entry)
• Kotobank: 島 (字通 kanji dictionary)
• Jisho (KANJIDIC2): 嶋, a name variant of 島

Written by the Chirami team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict and KANJIDIC2. How we write lessons. Spotted a mistake? Email support@brightsmilesolutions.org.