Japanese symbol for “undercooked”

生揚げ

なまあげ

Romaji: namaage

deep-fried bean curd; undercooked

In Japanese, undercooked is 生揚げ, read なまあげ (namaage).

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

n deep-fried bean curd; undercooked

Kanji and stroke order

生

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

揚

raise, elevate, hoist

on: ヨウ
kun: あ.げる、-あ.げ、あ.がる

12 strokes · JLPT 1

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

Word	Reading	Meaning
生活	せいかつ seikatsu	life; living
先生	せんせい sensei	teacher; instructor; master
人生	じんせい jinsei	(one's) life
学生	がくせい gakusei	student (esp. a university student)
発生	はっせい hassei	occurrence; incidence; outbreak
誕生	たんじょう tanjou	birth (of a person); nativity
揚げ	あげ age	deep-frying; deep-fried food
高揚	こうよう kouyou	elevation (of spirits); raising (of morale); uplift

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.