瓦 means “roof tile”

かわら · kawara

Also: tile, gram

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

かわら, ぐらむ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ガ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 5 strokes

The story

The Shuowen calls 瓦 a picture of fired clay: imagine curved tiles hooked into one another. Temples and castles wear heavy gray 瓦, a scowling 鬼瓦 guards each end of the ridge, and after an earthquake the news speaks of 瓦礫, rubble.

Used in 瓦 (kawara, roof tile), 鬼瓦 (onigawara, demon-faced ridge tile), and 瓦礫 (gareki, rubble)

More from Towns & Towers

• 桟 jetty
• 楼 tower
• 桁 digit
• 街 street
• 邸 residence
• 郡 county
• 郷 hometown
• 隣 next door
• 里 village
• 倉 warehouse
• 舎 building
• 丁 block

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

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