拙 means “clumsy, unskilled”

つたない · tsutanai

Also: bungling, unskillful

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

つたない

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

セツ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 8 strokes

The story

A hand (扌) beside 出: picture fingers that fumble and let things fall out. 拙い is unskilled, said humbly of your own work, 稚拙 is crude, and in period dramas samurai call themselves 拙者, this clumsy one.

Used in 拙い (tsutanai, clumsy/poor), 稚拙 (chisetsu, crude/childish), and 拙者 (sessha, I, in samurai speech)

More from Kiln & Forge

• 漆 lacquer
• 鋳 cast
• 窯 kiln
• 繕 mend
• 錬 refine
• 冶 smelt
• 璧 jade disk
• 製 manufacture
• 創 create
• 巧 skillful
• 陶 pottery
• 珠 pearl

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

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