King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “depraved”

Romaji: namagusai
smelling of fish; fishy; smelling of blood; bloody

In Japanese, depraved is , read (namagusai).

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-i smelling of fish; fishy; smelling of blood; bloody
  2. adj-i degenerate (of a monk); depraved; corrupt; fallen
  3. adj-i worldly; mundane; secular; common; ordinary
  4. adj-i fishy; suspicious; questionable

Written forms: . Readings: .

Kanji and stroke order

life, genuine, birth
on: セイ、ショウ
kun: い.きる、い.かす、い.ける、う.まれる
5 strokes · JLPT 4
stinking, ill-smelling, suspicious looking
on: シュウ
kun: くさ.い、-くさ.い、にお.う、にお.い
9 strokes · JLPT 1

Other Japanese words for “depraved”

WordReadingMeaning
はらわたのくさった harawatanokusattadepraved; corrupt; vicious

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
せいかつ seikatsulife; living
せんせい senseiteacher; instructor; master
じんせい jinsei(one's) life
がくせい gakuseistudent (esp. a university student)
はっせい hasseioccurrence; incidence; outbreak
たんじょう tanjoubirth (of a person); nativity
くさい kusaistinking; smelly
あくしゅう akushuubad smell; foul smell; offensive odor

See also: Chinese symbol for “depraved”.

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.