炭 means “charcoal, coal”

すみ · sumi

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

すみ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

タン

Taught in grade 3 · 9 strokes

The story

Fire (火) on a mountain (山) under a cliff (厂): wood slowly burned to become charcoal. Japanese 備長炭 (binchōtan) white charcoal, fired at 1200°C, is prized worldwide for grilling. The same material purifies water, and charcoal-makers in rural Japan carry on a craft stretching back millennia.

Used in 石炭 (sekitan, coal), 木炭 (mokutan, charcoal), and 炭素 (tanso, carbon)

More from Earth & Minerals

• 泥 mud
• 宝 treasure
• 陸 land
• 掘 dig
• 鋼 steel
• 層 layer
• 鉱 ore
• 晶 crystal
• 磁 magnet
• 鍛 forge
• 地 earth
• 岩 rock

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

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