King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “period”

Romaji: jidai
period; epoch; era; age

In Japanese, period is , read (jidai).

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 period; epoch; era; age
  2. n the times; those days
  3. n oldness; ancientness; antiquity
  4. n antique; period piece

Kanji and stroke order

time, hour
on: ジ
kun: とき、-どき
10 strokes · JLPT 4
substitute, change, convert
on: ダイ、タイ
kun: か.わる、かわ.る、かわ.り、か.わり
5 strokes · JLPT 3

Other Japanese words for “period”

WordReadingMeaning
きかん kikanperiod; term; interval
じき jikitime; season; period
き kiperiod; time
じかん jikanperiod; class; lesson
ねんだい nendaiage; era; period

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
じかん jikantime
じき jikitime; season; period
とうじ toujiat that time; in those days
いちじ ichijione o'clock
どうじ doujisame time
だいひょう daihyourepresentation; representative; delegate
げんだい gendaipresent age; present day; contemporary
かわり kawarisubstitute; replacement; substituting

See also: Chinese symbol for “period”.

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.