維 means “fiber, tie, maintain”

い · i

Also: rope

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

イ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 14 strokes

The story

Thread (糸) tied to a bird (隹): picture a falconer's cord keeping the bird in place. 維 is the line that holds things together: 維持 is maintaining, 繊維 is fiber, and 明治維新 is the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

Used in 維持 (iji, maintenance), 繊維 (sen'i, fiber), and 維新 (ishin, restoration)

More from Ropes & Knots

• 締 tighten
• 繰 reel
• 括 bundle
• 綱 rope
• 索 search
• 鎖 chain
• 絞 wring
• 縛 bind
• 結 tie

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

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