西

West

N5 · 6 stroke · 18 kanji

A bird settling into its nest at sunset — the west is where the sun sets and birds come home.

At sunset, birds return to their nests in the west. The shape of 西 is a nest with a bird folded inside — the rounded top, the cross-bars of the nest's interior. When the sun moves west, the birds know it is time to come home. 西 is the direction of endings and rest.

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Kanji using this radical
2 kanji
西
West
にし · せい
Need / Essential / Summary
い・る · よう

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