岐 means “branch off, fork”

き · ki

Also: fork in road, scene, arena

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

キ, ギ

JLPT N1 · Taught in grade 4 · 7 strokes

The story

A mountain (山) with a branch (支) splitting off: a fork in a mountain road. 岐 is branching: 分岐 is a fork or junction, 分岐点 a turning point, and 岐阜, Gifu, is a mountain prefecture in the middle of Honshu.

Used in 分岐 (bunki, branching/fork), 岐阜 (gifu, Gifu), and 多岐 (taki, wide-ranging)

More from Across Japan

• 阜 hill
• 畿 capital region
• 媛 princess
• 岡 hill
• 阪 slope
• 崎 cape
• 奈 Nara
• 沖 open sea
• 埼 cape
• 縄 rope
• 茨 thorn
• 潟 lagoon

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

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