峠 means “mountain pass, crisis point”

とうげ · touge

Also: mountain peak, climax, crest

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

とうげ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 9 strokes

The story

Mountain (山), up (上), down (下): the point where the road stops climbing and starts to fall. Japan made this kanji itself. 峠 is a mountain pass, and 峠を越す is to get past the worst, of a fever, a heat wave or a crisis.

Used in 峠 (touge, mountain pass), 峠道 (tougemichi, road over a pass), and 峠を越す (touge o kosu, to get past the worst)

More from Peaks & Caves

• 坑 pit
• 麓 foot of a mountain
• 窟 cavern
• 塚 mound
• 岳 high mountain
• 丘 hill
• 洞 cave
• 峡 gorge
• 峰 peak

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