JŌYŌ KANJI · Grade 2
music
music · comfort · ease
Readings
Official Jōyō readings in table order
On’yomi 音読み
Kun’yomi 訓読み
Additional readings in the learning dataset
On’yomi
Kun’yomi
These are outside the official Jōyō list above. A listed reading is not necessarily common in modern use.
Origin and meaning
Its early form represented a stringed instrument (or, in another account, bells) and meant music. Enjoyment, ease and comfort are later extensions.
Written form
The official Jōyō table also prints the following parenthesized form beside 楽:
Compare manuscript and printed examples in the HNG historical glyph archive ↗. Where available, its dated samples document written forms; they do not establish the first use of this character in Japan.
Examples in the official table
- 楽隊，楽器，音楽
- 楽園，快楽，娯楽
- 楽しい，楽しさ，楽しげだ
- 楽しむ
Official notes
- 神楽（かぐら）
When did it enter Japanese?
Chinese characters reached Japan through a long process of contact. Early inscribed objects and sixth-century Japanese names are documented; this is context for the writing system, not a first date for 楽.
楽 appears in the current Jōyō kanji table published on 30 November 2010. This records modern standard status, not the date the character was first used in Japan.
A dated first Japanese use for 楽 has not been verified in the sources attached to this entry.
Agency for Cultural Affairs: writing history ↗ · 2010 Jōyō notice ↗