The kanji for star: sun + born (星)

The kanji for star is 星 (hoshi). It’s made of 日, the sun, on top of 生, to be born, which gives a lovely way to remember it: a star is a sun being born. The real history is different, and just as neat: the 日 on top was a star from the start.

What the kanji say

日 (hi) is the sun, drawn in the oldest writing as a circle with a dot in the middle. It means sun and day: 毎日 (mainichi), every day, and 日曜日 (nichiyoubi), Sunday.

生 is a sprout coming up out of the ground. It means life, birth and growth, and it has a long list of readings: 生まれる (umareru), to be born, 生きる (ikiru), to live, 先生 (sensei), a teacher, and 生 (nama), raw or fresh, as in 生ビール (nama biiru), draft beer.

Where it really comes from

The oldest forms of 星 were drawn with several little circles: a cluster of stars, not one sun. In the old full form, 曐, three of them sit in a small pyramid on top of 生, and 生 was there for its sound, which was close to the old Chinese word for star.

The Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese dictionary from around 100 CE, already explains the mix-up. It says each star was drawn as a circle with a dot in the middle, “so it looks the same as 日”. Over time the cluster was cut down to a single star, and that’s the 日 you see today.

So 星 is really stars plus a sound hint. Still, this memory aid fits better than most: every star in the night sky really is a sun.

How to use it

• 今夜は星がきれいですね。

  Kon'ya wa hoshi ga kirei desu ne.

  The stars are beautiful tonight, aren't they?

• あ、流れ星！

  A, nagareboshi!

  Oh, a shooting star!

• 火星は赤く見えます。

  Kasei wa akaku miemasu.

  Mars looks red.

• このホテルは五つ星です。

  Kono hoteru wa itsutsuboshi desu.

  This is a five-star hotel.

• Two main readings. On its own, star is ほし (hoshi), and it often becomes ぼし (boshi) after another word, as in 流れ星 (nagareboshi). In words borrowed from Chinese it’s せい (sei): 星座 (seiza), a constellation.
• The five planets you can see with the naked eye are named after the five elements of old Chinese thought: 水星 (suisei), Mercury, water; 金星 (kinsei), Venus, metal; 火星 (kasei), Mars, fire; 木星 (mokusei), Jupiter, wood; and 土星 (dosei), Saturn, earth.
• Stars rate things too: 五つ星 (itsutsuboshi), five stars, for a hotel, or 三つ星 (mitsuboshi), three stars, for a top restaurant.
• The first star of the evening has its own word: 一番星 (ichibanboshi).

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

Picture a tiny new sun (日) pushing up out of the dark ground like a seedling (生), then floating up into the night sky. That’s 星: a sun being born.

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

• Wiktionary: 星
• Zdic: 星 (with the Shuowen Jiezi entry)
• Wikipedia: Classical planet (the Chinese planet names and their elements)

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.