King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “deformed”

Romaji: katawa
crippled; deformed

In Japanese, deformed is , read (katawa).

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Meanings

  1. adj-na, n crippled; deformed
  2. adj-na, n imperfect; incomplete
  3. adj-na, n one wheel

Written forms: . Readings: .

Kanji and stroke order

one-sided, leaf, sheet
on: ヘン
kun: かた-、かた
4 strokes · JLPT 2
edge, origin, end
on: タン
kun: はし、は、はた、-ばた
14 strokes · JLPT 1

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
かたて katateone hand
かたほう katahouone side; one party; the other side
はへん hahenfragment; broken piece; splinter
かたみち katamichione-way (trip)
だんぺん danpenfragment; scrap; piece
かたがわ katagawaone side
きょくたん kyokutanextreme; extremity
せんたん sentanpointed end; tip; point

See also: Chinese symbol for “deformed”.

Data: JMdict (CC BY-SA 4.0); KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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