葉
KanjiJLPT N4
Leaf
leaf, plane, lobe, needle, blade, spear, counter for flat things, fragment, piece
Mnemonic
Each generation of a towering tree sprouts a thin carpet of grass along its branches. From that grass, a perfect leaf unfurls — every leaf a green memoir of the generation that grew it, pressed flat like a page and forever part of the tree.
Additional thoughts
Visualize time-lapse footage: grass appears on a branch, then flattens and fuses into a single leaf. Each leaf is literally one generation's grass preserved by the tree — linking leaves to words/pages (as in 言葉).Quick recall
A tree sprouts grass each generation, and that grass becomes a single leaf.Details
The keyword for 葉 is leaf. This kanji represents the leaf of a plant or tree, referring to the flat, typically green structures that grow from branches and stems. By extension, it can also refer to thin, flat objects resembling leaves, such as sheets or pages. It is additionally used in the context of words, language, or an era/period, as in the Japanese word 言葉 (words), connecting the idea of leaves as individual, delicate units to units of speech.
- On'yomi
- よう
- Kun'yomi
- は