King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “ginger”

Romaji: shouga
ginger (Zingiber officinale)

In Japanese, ginger is , read (shouga).

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 ginger (Zingiber officinale)

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
Chinese surname, ginger
on: キョウ、ガ
kun: こう
9 strokes

Other Japanese words for “ginger”

WordReadingMeaning
ジンジャー jinjaaginger
はじかみ hajikamiginger (Zingiber officinale)

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
かんしょうが kanshougapowdered ginger
しょうがやき shougayakipork fried with ginger

See also: Chinese symbol for “ginger”.

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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