咲 means “bloom, blossom”

さく · saku

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

さく

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ショウ

JLPT N2 · Taught in secondary school · 9 strokes

The story

A mouth (口) opening wide: 咲 began as an old way of writing 笑, to laugh, and Japanese gave it to flowers opening like a smile. 咲く is to bloom, and a 遅咲き is a late bloomer, a flower or a person whose moment comes later.

Used in 咲く (saku, to bloom), 遅咲き (osozaki, late bloomer), and 返り咲き (kaerizaki, comeback)

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

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