綱 means “rope, cable, main line”

つな · tsuna

Also: hawser, class (genus), cord

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

つな

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

コウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 14 strokes

The story

Thread (糸) twisted thick as a hill (岡): a heavy rope. 綱 is the rope in 綱引き, tug-of-war, and a sumo 横綱, the grand champion, wears a thick white rope round his waist for his ring-entering ceremony.

Used in 横綱 (yokozuna, sumo grand champion), 綱引き (tsunahiki, tug-of-war), and 綱領 (kouryou, party platform)

More from Ropes & Knots

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

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

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