King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “sham”

Romaji: nise
imitation; fake; phony; counterfeit

In Japanese, sham is , read (nise).

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-no, n imitation; fake; phony; counterfeit; forged; bogus
  2. pref pseudo-

Written forms: . Readings: .

Kanji and stroke order

falsehood, lie, deceive
on: ギ、カ
kun: いつわ.る、にせ、いつわ.り
11 strokes · JLPT 1

Other Japanese words for “sham”

WordReadingMeaning
にせもの nisemonospurious article; forgery; counterfeit
ぎじ gijipseudo; quasi; false
もぞう mozouimitation; counterfeit; fake
つくりもの tsukurimonoartificial product; man-made product; imitation
ごまかし gomakashicheating; deception; trickery

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
ぎぞう gizouforgery; counterfeiting; fabrication
ぎそう gisoucamouflage; disguise
にせもの nisemonospurious article; forgery; counterfeit
しんぎ shingitruth or falsehood; genuineness; authenticity
きょぎ kyogifalsehood; untruth; lie
いつわり itsuwarilie; falsehood; fiction

See also: Chinese symbol for “sham”.

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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