King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “gaze”

Romaji: mesen
(one's) gaze; line of sight; direction in which one is looking

In Japanese, gaze is , read (mesen).

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. n (one's) gaze; line of sight; direction in which one is looking
  2. n point of view; standpoint
  3. n line covering someone's eyes (to obscure their identity); eye censor bar; black bar

Kanji and stroke order

eye, class, look
on: モク、ボク
kun: め、-め、ま-
5 strokes · JLPT 4
line, track
on: セン
kun: すじ
15 strokes · JLPT 2

Other Japanese words for “gaze”

WordReadingMeaning
みつめる mitsumeruto stare (at); to gaze (at); to look hard (at)
しせん shisenone's line of sight; one's gaze; one's eyes (looking)
め melook; stare; gaze
ぎょうし gyoushistare; gaze; fixation
みいる miiruto gaze (at); to stare intently (at); to look fixedly (at)

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
もくてき mokutekipurpose; goal; aim
もくひょう mokuhyougoal; target; aim
ちゅうもく chuumokunotice; attention; observation
こうもく koumokuitem; heading; category
もくげき mokugekiwitnessing; observing; sighting
だめ dameno good; not serving its purpose; useless
しんかんせん shinkansenShinkansen; bullet train
むせん musenradio (communication)

See also: Chinese symbol for “gaze”.

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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