錮 means “confinement”

こ · ko

Also: to tie

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

ふさぐ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

コ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 16 strokes

The story

Metal (金) made fast (固): 錮 once meant sealing a gap with molten metal. It lives in 禁錮, imprisonment without compulsory work, the lighter sentence that Japan merged with 懲役 into a single 拘禁刑 for crimes from June 2025.

Used in 禁錮 (kinko, imprisonment without labor) and 禁錮刑 (kinkokei, a sentence of confinement)

More from Prisons & Penalties

• 勾 bend
• 逮 arrest
• 刑 penalty
• 罰 punishment
• 懲 punish
• 拘 detain
• 獄 prison
• 偵 spy
• 拷 torture
• 囚 prisoner

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