熊 means “bear”

くま · kuma

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

くま

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ユウ

Taught in grade 4 · 14 strokes

The story

Hokkaido's brown bears are Japan's largest land animals, revered by the Ainu people as gods of the mountains. The carved wooden 熊 is Hokkaido's most iconic souvenir.

Used in 熊本 (Kumamoto, city name) and 白熊 (shirokuma, polar bear)

More from Animals & Creatures

• 蛇 snake
• 兎 rabbit
• 象 elephant
• 竜 dragon
• 亀 turtle
• 猿 monkey
• 鯨 whale
• 狐 fox
• 蛙 frog
• 犬 dog
• 猫 cat
• 牛 cow

Learn 熊 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.