Kanji for Tiger: 虎 (Tora), 虎の巻 and the Zodiac Tiger 寅

The tiger kanji in four words

虎 is the kanji you need for the animal, the idioms and most names. The zodiac uses 寅, and the tiger's stripes, its strength and its famous handbook all come up in everyday words. These four rows cover what most learners meet first. Note that the kanji is pronounced tora in all four, so you can learn the reading once and recognise it everywhere. Only in more formal compounds and idioms, which come later, does the reading ko appear.

Readings, strokes and the tiger head 虍

虎 has eight strokes. Its top part, 虍, is known as the tiger head, torakanmuri, or tora gashira. Below it sits 几, which is usually explained as the legs of the animal. The character began as a drawing of a tiger, and the tiger head part survives in several other kanji.

虎 was added to the official list of kanji for general use in 2010, so it now appears in school materials and newspapers. Before that, the animal was often written in kana. 寅 has nothing to do with the shape of a tiger: it is one of the twelve earthly branches, an old counting system, and only its zodiac animal links it to the tiger.

The tiger head appears in kanji such as 虚, empty; 劇, drama; and 慮, consideration. In those characters it is part of the shape and does not mean tiger. Learning the tiger head as a unit, six strokes in a fixed order, makes all of these kanji faster to write and easier to recognise.

Everyday words and tiger idioms

Japanese idioms use the tiger for power, danger and preciousness. Several come from classical Chinese, so they sound formal; others are casual and modern. The table of registers below helps you choose.

虎の威を借る狐 describes someone who acts powerful only because of the person behind them, like a junior who keeps saying the boss wants it. It is critical, so use it about situations rather than to someone's face. Notice that 虎子 in the proverb is read koji, the tiger's cub, while 虎の子 is tora no ko.

寅 and the Year of the Tiger

The tiger is the third animal of the Japanese zodiac, after the rat and the ox. People often mention their sign when talking about age, and New Year cards in a tiger year are covered with tigers. Use 寅 for the sign and 虎 for pictures of the animal.

Tigers in temples, screens and stripes

Because real tigers were never seen in old Japan, painters worked from imported pictures, skins and imagination, and some temple tigers look charmingly like big cats. Tigers paired with bamboo are a classic subject on sliding screens. Today you are more likely to meet the tiger in stripes: on sports fans' shirts and on the yellow-and-black barriers and ropes at construction sites, whose pattern people compare to a tiger's coat.

虎 vs 虚, and how to write the tiger

The most common confusion is with 虚, empty or false, as in 虚しい, munashii, and 謙虚, kenkyo, modest. Both start with the tiger head 虍. 虎 has 几 below, like two legs; 虚 has a shape like 业 below. If the bottom has many short vertical lines, it is not a tiger.

• Writing 寅 for a tiger in a story. 寅 is the zodiac sign only.
• Reading 虎の子 as koshi. The idiom is tora no ko.
• Using 虎視眈々 in casual chat. It sounds like a news report among friends.
• Forgetting the hooked final stroke of 几, which makes the tiger look unfinished.

To write 虎, start with the short vertical and the short horizontal at the top, then the long horizontal across the top and the left-falling stroke that frames the character. Write the small inner strokes of the tiger head next, then 几 at the bottom: a left-falling stroke and a final stroke that bends right and hooks upwards. That last stroke gives the tiger its stance, so make it generous.

Tiger names and the tiger who drinks too much

Because the tiger stands for courage and strength, 虎 appears in boys' names, often combined with other kanji that add brightness or a classic feel. Readings vary, so a name with 虎 might start with Ko or Tora. As with every Japanese name, the family chooses the kanji for meaning, sound and look, and the only way to know the reading is to ask.

There is also a comic side. In casual speech, a person who gets loud and wild when drunk is said to turn into a tiger, トラになる, tora ni naru, and a very drunk person is sometimes called 大虎, ōtora, a big tiger. It is teasing, not cruel, but keep it for friends and for situations, not for your boss.

Kanji often carry several layers like this. The dictionary meaning of 虎 is simply tiger, yet a Japanese reader may also think of bravery, a temple painting, a baseball crowd or a friend who sang too loudly after the third round. That is part of why choosing a kanji for a name or a design takes more thought than looking up one English word.

Choosing 虎 for a tattoo or design

虎 is a strong single-character design: compact, symmetrical in weight and readable in Japanese and Chinese, where it means the same thing. If you want to say more than tiger, think about the word. 竜虎, dragon and tiger, suggests a balance of two powers. 猛虎, mōko, a fierce tiger, sounds intense and a little old-fashioned. 寅 makes sense only if you mean your zodiac sign.

Avoid long proverbs unless you love the exact words; 虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず is a sentence in classical style and reads oddly as body art. Calligraphy styles change the shape of the tiger head considerably, so have a native speaker check the exact design you will ink.

Make tiger idioms your own with Mocchi

• Ask Mocchi: /quiz tiger idioms. It asks you to match 虎の巻, 虎の子 and 虎視眈々 to their meanings and explains each one you miss.
• Tell Mocchi you want these idioms in your plan. It remembers, and they reappear in later reviews.
• Open Sentence Builder on the games page and put the chunks of 虎穴に入らずんば虎子を得ず in order until the classical word order feels natural.