丹 means “red, cinnabar, sincere”
たん · tan
Also: rust-colored, red lead, pills
- Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)
- に
- On'yomi (Chinese reading)
- タン
JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 4 strokes
The story
A frame with one dot inside: the Shuowen reads it as a mine shaft with a lump of red cinnabar in it. 丹 is that red, on the head of the 丹頂 crane, and also wholehearted care: farm labels boast of crops grown 丹精込めて.
Used in 丹念 (tannen, painstaking care), 丹精 (tansei, devoted effort), and 丹頂 (tanchou, red-crowned crane)
More from Shades & Dyes
- 玄 dark
- 淡 pale
- 朱 vermilion
- 紺 navy blue
- 藍 indigo
- 斑 spot
- 褐 brown
- 瑠 lapis lazuli
- 璃 lapis lazuli
- 鮮 vivid
- 染 dye
- 彩 color
Learn 丹 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji
Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.