籍 means “register, membership”

せき · seki

Also: enroll, domiciliary register

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

セキ

JLPT N2 · Taught in secondary school · 20 strokes

The story

Bamboo (竹), a plow (耒) and long ago (昔): picture farmers' names inked on bamboo slips, generation after generation. 籍 is a register: Japan's 戸籍 records every family, and 入籍, entering it, is how couples say they married.

Used in 国籍 (kokuseki, nationality), 戸籍 (koseki, family register), and 入籍 (nyuuseki, registering a marriage)

More from Names & Introductions

• 仲 relationship
• 紹 introduce
• 童 child
• 幼 very young
• 姓 surname
• 介 mediate
• 児 child
• 齢 age

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