Meaning
刈 (かる) covers cutting, mowing, and reaping — the blade-in-hand work of farm and garden alike. Grass in the backyard, rice stalks in the paddy, a crew cut at the barber: all fall under 刈. The unifying idea is a sweeping blade motion that cuts and gathers material in a single pass.
The character has two parts: 乂 on the left and 刀 (the knife radical) on the right. 乂 visually resembles two crossed blades — the X shape formed when two cutting edges meet. 刀 beside it produces a picture of blades in cutting action, the kind of rhythmic sweep used when harvesting crops or trimming hedges.
In Japan, 刈 is tied to agricultural tradition. Rice harvesting (稲刈り) is one of the most recognizable seasonal rituals in Japanese culture, and this kanji is central to it. Each autumn, farmers enter the paddies with sickles and cut the golden stalks — that action is 刈 in its direct form. The word carries a sense of purposeful, productive labor: a task that marks the end of a growing season.
刈 has 4 strokes and does not appear in the elementary school kanji list, placing it in the advanced category. At JLPT N1, expect to see it in texts on agriculture, nature, and daily life — and in literary passages where death "reaps" souls. Its compounds are practical and appear regularly in everyday Japanese.
Readings
On'yomi (音読み) — Chinese-derived readings
刈 has no on'yomi in modern Japanese — the Joyo kanji list (常用漢字表) assigns none. This is uncommon among kanji and reflects the word's roots in native Japanese agricultural vocabulary, not in the Chinese scholarly texts that gave most kanji their on'yomi readings.
Older dictionaries occasionally list a historical on'yomi, but it's obsolete. You won't see it on any modern exam or in everyday speech. For learners, this simplifies things considerably. Since 刈 carries no on'yomi, it doesn't appear in the Chinese-derived compound patterns that fill so much of written Japanese. Every common form uses the kun'yomi — there's exactly one reading to learn.
Kun'yomi (訓読み) — Native Japanese readings
The sole reading is か・る (karu) — a verb meaning to mow, to cut, or to reap. It's used in the standalone verb and in nearly every compound containing this kanji.
- 草を刈る (kusa wo karu) — to mow grass, to cut weeds
- 稲を刈る (ine wo karu) — to harvest rice
- 刈り取る (karitoru) — to reap, to mow down (also used figuratively)
刈る (karu) is a godan (Group 1) verb: 刈ります (karimasu, polite present), 刈って (katte, te-form), 刈った (katta, plain past), 刈らない (karanai, negative). Common objects include 草 (grass), 稲 (rice plant), 芝 (lawn turf), 麦 (wheat or barley), 枝 (branches), and 髪 (hair).
Common Words & Compounds
刈 rarely appears in isolation. Its compounds span agricultural work, garden maintenance, and personal grooming — the same cutting action applied at different scales.
農業・収穫 (Agriculture & Harvest)
- 稲刈り (inekari) — rice harvesting; typically done in September–October, one of Japan's most iconic seasonal activities
- 草刈り (kusakari) — grass mowing, weed cutting; a regular chore in gardens and fields
- 麦刈り (mugikari) — wheat or barley harvesting
- 刈り入れ (kariire) — harvest time; refers to the whole harvest season, not a single cut
- 刈り株 (karikabu) — stubble; the cut stalks left standing in the ground after harvest
- 刈り取る (karitoru) — to reap, to mow down; also used in literary contexts for death claiming lives
庭・植木 (Garden & Plants)
- 芝刈り (shiba kari) — lawn mowing
- 芝刈り機 (shibakariki) — lawn mower
- 草刈り機 (kusakariki) — grass cutter, weed trimmer
- 刈り込む (karikomu) — to trim, to prune carefully (hedges, bushes, ornamental trees)
髪型・理容 (Hairstyles & Grooming)
- 丸刈り (marugari) — crew cut, buzz cut; hair cropped uniformly short across the entire head
- 刈り上げ (kariage) — undercut or tapered style; sides and back cut short, more length left on top
Example Sentences
庭の草を刈った。
Niwa no kusa wo katta.
I mowed the grass in the garden.
農家が田んぼで稲を刈っている。
Nouka ga tanbo de ine wo katte iru.
A farmer is harvesting rice in the paddy field.
彼は散髪屋で丸刈りにしてもらった。
Kare wa sanpatsunya de marugari ni shite moratta.
He had his hair cut into a crew cut at the barber.
毎週芝刈りをしないと、庭が荒れてしまう。
Maishuu shiba kari wo shinai to, niwa ga arete shimau.
If I don't mow the lawn every week, the garden will become overgrown.
秋になると、田舎では稲刈りが始まる。
Aki ni naru to, inaka de wa inekari ga hajimaru.
When autumn comes, rice harvesting begins in the countryside.
生け垣を刈り込んで、形を整えた。
Ikegaki wo karikonde, katachi wo totonoeta.
I trimmed the hedge and shaped it neatly.
鎌で草を刈るのは、機械より時間がかかる。
Kama de kusa wo karu no wa, kikai yori jikan ga kakaru.
Mowing grass with a sickle takes more time than using a machine.
その詩は、死神が命を刈り取るイメージで書かれている。
Sono shi wa, shinigami ga inochi wo karitoru imeeji de kakarete iru.
That poem is written with the image of the Grim Reaper harvesting lives.
刈り上げのヘアスタイルが最近若者の間で流行っている。
Kariage no heasutairu ga saikin wakamono no aida de hayatte iru.
The undercut hairstyle has been trending among young people lately.
台風の前に、庭の木の枝を刈り込んでおいた。
Taifuu no mae ni, niwa no ki no eda wo karikonde oita.
Before the typhoon, I trimmed the tree branches in the garden ahead of time.
Memory Tip
Break 刈 into its two components: 乂 on the left and 刀 on the right. The 乂 looks like an X — two blades crossing. 刀 is the knife radical, a straight cutting edge. Together they suggest crossed blades joined to a cutting edge: a sickle in mid-swing.
Picture a farmer making an X-shaped sweep (乂) through rows of rice, the blade (刀) slicing each stalk clean. You can also read the 乂 as the crisscross pattern left in a field after rows of crop have been cut — visual evidence that 刈 has already done its work. Either image ties the shape to the meaning: crossed blades, one clean motion.