Meaning
帳 has two core meanings that look unrelated at first glance: notebook or register, and curtain or hanging cloth. In modern Japanese, the record-keeping sense dominates — you'll encounter it in everyday words like 手帳 (personal organizer) and 通帳 (bank passbook). The curtain meaning survives mainly in classical literature and a handful of fixed expressions.
帳 is built from two components: 巾 (kin), meaning cloth or fabric, and 長 (chō/naga), meaning long. 巾 is the semantic component; 長 provides both the phonetic reading チョウ and a hint at meaning. Together they depicted a long piece of hanging fabric — the kind of cloth canopy or partition used in ancient Chinese and Japanese courts to divide spaces, decorate ceremonial areas, or screen off private quarters. This original image gave rise to the meaning of curtain, screen, or canopy.
How did a word for curtains come to mean notebooks? The connection is architectural. In ancient East Asia, official ledgers and government documents were stored in the inner chambers of administrative buildings — rooms shielded by hanging cloth partitions. 帳 gradually came to refer not just to the fabric itself but to the records kept behind it. Today that record-keeping meaning has taken over completely, and the curtain sense is largely forgotten outside of classical texts.
Stroke count: 11. Classification: Grade 3 Jōyō kanji, introduced in the third year of Japanese elementary school. The radical is 巾 (cloth), which ties 帳 directly to its textile origins — the same radical appears in 幕 (curtain, tent) and 布 (cloth, fabric).
Readings
On'yomi (音読み) — Chinese-derived readings
One on'yomi: チョウ (chō). This reading appears in almost every compound — formal documents, business language, everyday stationery. When 帳 pairs with another kanji, read it チョウ without hesitation. It is derived from the Middle Chinese pronunciation and has remained stable across all modern compounds.
- 帳簿 (chōbo) — account book, ledger; the foundational bookkeeping record
- 手帳 (techō) — personal notebook, pocket diary, organizer
- 通帳 (tsūchō) — bank passbook, account booklet issued by a bank
- 台帳 (daichō) — master register, official ledger; also used in theater to mean a script
- 電話帳 (denwachō) — telephone directory, phone book
Kun'yomi (訓読み) — Native Japanese readings
One kun'yomi: とばり (tobari), meaning curtain, hanging cloth, or canopy. Rare in everyday speech, it belongs to classical literature and poetry. The word 帳 evokes elegant fabric partitions swaying in ancient aristocratic residences or Buddhist temples — 帳's original visual identity before it became a word about paperwork.
- 帳 (tobari) — curtain, canopy, hanging cloth divider used in ancient settings
- 蚊帳 (kaya) — mosquito net; an irregular reading, still used in everyday Japanese when referring to traditional sleeping nets
Common Words & Compounds
Nearly every modern 帳 compound uses the on'yomi チョウ and relates to notebooks, records, or registers. These words appear constantly in offices, banks, schools, and stationery shops across Japan.
Everyday Notebooks and Personal Records
- 手帳 (techō) — personal organizer, pocket notebook; you'll find these at every Japanese stationery counter in dozens of sizes and formats
- メモ帳 (memochō) — memo pad, notepad; the small scratch pad used for quick notes
- 連絡帳 (renrakuchō) — communication notebook; the daily booklet exchanged between Japanese elementary schools and parents
- 住所帳 (jūshochō) — address book; a notebook recording names and contact information
Financial and Administrative Records
- 通帳 (tsūchō) — bank passbook; the small booklet a bank issues to record all your transactions
- 帳簿 (chōbo) — account book, ledger; the formal record of financial transactions used in business and accounting
- 台帳 (daichō) — master register or official ledger; in theater and film, also the word for a full production script
- 帳面 (chōmen) — notebook, account book; old-fashioned now, but still heard in certain dialects and among older speakers
- 帳場 (chōba) — front desk or cashier's area at a traditional Japanese inn or shop
Idiomatic and Fixed Expressions
- 帳消し (chōkeshi) — cancellation, writing off a debt; literally "erasing from the books"
- 帳尻 (chōjiri) — balance of accounts; making the numbers add up at the bottom of a ledger
- 蚊帳 (kaya) — mosquito net; a traditional household item from summers before air conditioning became common
Example Sentences
手帳に来週の予定を書き込んだ。
Techō ni raishū no yotei wo kakikonda.
I wrote next week's schedule into my notebook.
銀行の通帳を見たら、残高が思ったより少なかった。
Ginkō no tsūchō wo mitara, zandaka ga omotta yori sukunakatta.
When I checked my bank passbook, the balance was lower than I expected.
経理の帳簿を毎月末に確認している。
Keiri no chōbo wo maigetsumatsu ni kakunin shite iru.
I check the accounting ledger at the end of every month.
子供たちは連絡帳を毎日先生に渡す。
Kodomotachi wa renrakuchō wo mainichi sensei ni watasu.
The children hand their communication notebooks to the teacher every day.
その借金は帳消しにしてもらえた。
Sono shakkin wa chōkeshi ni shite moraeta.
I was able to have that debt written off.
電話帳で病院の番号を調べた。
Denwachō de byōin no bangō wo shirabeta.
I looked up the hospital's phone number in the telephone directory.
台帳に新しい顧客の情報を登録した。
Daichō ni atarashii kokyaku no jōhō wo tōroku shita.
I registered the new customer's information in the master ledger.
昔の夏は蚊帳を吊って寝るのが普通だった。
Mukashi no natsu wa kaya wo tsutte neru no ga futsū datta.
In the old days, it was normal to sleep under a hung mosquito net in summer.
帳尻を合わせるために残業が続いた。
Chōjiri wo awaseru tame ni zangyō ga tsuzuita.
Overtime continued in order to balance the accounts.
Memory Tip
Picture a long (長) piece of cloth (巾) hanging at the entrance to an ancient merchant's back room. Behind that curtain, the merchant sits hunched over his account books. The cloth — the 帳 — hides the records from outsiders. Both meanings live in this image: curtain (とばり) and notebook (チョウ). The 長 component reminds you of length and supplies the reading チョウ. The 巾 tells you what it's made of — fabric. Together they give you 帳: the cloth that hid the books, and then became the books.