Meaning & readings

ritual, offer prayers, celebrate, deify, enshrine, worship

On’yomi サイ
Kun’yomi まつ.る、まつ.り、まつり

Origin

This character most likely combines two visual elements: the left side shows a shrine or altar (represented by the roof-like strokes), and the right side depicts a hand or person making an offering. The overall image captures the physical act of presenting something to a deity at a sacred place, which is the core meaning of ritual worship and celebration. Over time, the character's strokes became more stylized and abstract, but the fundamental idea remained: a person performing sacred acts at an altar or shrine to honor the gods.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.

11 strokes

Components

This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (祭).

  • meaning part

Common words

  • 祭る まつる to deify; to enshrine
  • 祭壇 さいだん altar
  • 祭典 さいてん festival
  • 祭日 さいじつ national holiday; festival day
  • 祭礼 さいれい (religious) festival
  • 祭り まつり festival; feast
  • 葬祭 そうさい funerals and ceremonial occasions
  • 慰霊祭 いれいさい memorial service

Reference

Strokes
11
Kangxi radical
113
Grade
Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#1124 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+0796D