Meaning
廊 means corridor, hallway, or gallery — a long, roofed passage connecting spaces within or between buildings. It lives in the vocabulary of architecture, appearing in descriptions of temple passages, museum galleries, school hallways, and traditional Japanese residences.
廊 is built from two components. The radical 广 (まだれ) — a sweeping stroke suggesting a roof or overhang — marks it as a kanji about buildings and enclosed structures. The phonetic component 郎 (ろう) supplies the pronunciation and hints at an orderly, purposeful space. Picture the graceful wooden corridors of a temple complex like Hōryūji: covered walkways linking the main hall to side buildings, open on one side to a garden. Or the long tiled hallways of a modern school. That image of sheltered, directional movement is exactly what 廊 names.
In daily life, 廊 appears most often in 廊下 (ろうか), the ordinary word for a hallway. With 12 strokes, it is a grade-8 Jōyō kanji — high-school level — and turns up more often in formal writing and architectural descriptions than in casual text. Since 廊 has no kun'yomi, you'll meet it almost exclusively through compounds. Learn 廊下, 回廊, and 画廊 well, and you'll have solid footing with this character.
Readings
On'yomi (音読み) — Chinese-derived readings
廊 has one on'yomi: ロウ (rō), drawn from Middle Chinese. Every compound that uses this kanji carries that same reading — no alternates to juggle.
Key compounds using the ロウ reading:
- 廊下 (rōka) — hallway, corridor; the everyday word for any indoor passage, from homes to offices
- 回廊 (kairō) — cloister, ambulatory; a covered gallery corridor wrapping around a courtyard, common in shrines and temples
- 画廊 (garō) — art gallery; a space for displaying and selling visual art
- 歩廊 (horō) — promenade, covered walkway, or the roofed passage along a train platform
Whenever you meet 廊 in an architectural or cultural context, it reads ロウ.
Kun'yomi (訓読み) — Native Japanese readings
廊 has no kun'yomi. Japanese borrowed this character for its architectural meaning before any native word existed to pair with it, so no kun'yomi was ever assigned. Japanese speakers use ロウ at all registers — 廊下 is as natural and familiar as any everyday word. There is nothing to memorize beyond ロウ and the compounds that carry it.
Common Words & Compounds
The most useful 廊 compounds fall into three areas: everyday passages, temple architecture, and cultural venues.
Everyday Architecture & Interior Spaces:
- 廊下 (rōka) — hallway, corridor; the single most common word using this kanji, found in homes, schools, hospitals, and offices
- 渡り廊下 (watari rōka) — covered walkway or connecting corridor between two buildings
- 長廊下 (naga rōka) — a long hallway or extended corridor
- 廊下続き (rōka tsuzuki) — rooms or buildings connected by a corridor
Traditional & Temple Architecture:
- 回廊 (kairō) — cloister or ambulatory wrapping around a courtyard or garden; a defining feature of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples
- 回廊式 (kairōshiki) — cloister-style layout; an architectural design term
Art & Culture:
- 画廊 (garō) — art gallery; a commercial or exhibition space for visual art
- 美術廊 (bijutsurō) — fine arts gallery; a more formal or literary term
Movement & Infrastructure:
- 歩廊 (horō) — promenade, pedestrian walkway, or the covered passage along a train platform
Example Sentences
廊下を走らないでください。
Rōka wo hashiranaide kudasai.
Please do not run in the hallway.
この学校の廊下はとても長い。
Kono gakkō no rōka wa totemo nagai.
The hallway in this school is very long.
廊下の突き当たりに非常口があります。
Rōka no tsukiatari ni hijōguchi ga arimasu.
There is an emergency exit at the end of the hallway.
寺の回廊を歩きながら、静かな空気を感じた。
Tera no kairō wo aruki nagara, shizuka na kūki wo kanjita.
Walking through the temple's cloister, I felt the stillness in the air.
博物館の回廊に古い絵画が並んでいた。
Hakubutsukan no kairō ni furui kaiga ga narande ita.
Old paintings lined the museum's gallery corridor.
その画廊では若い芸術家の作品が展示されていた。
Sono garō dewa wakai geijutsuka no sakuhin ga tenji sarete ita.
Works by young artists were on display at that gallery.
渡り廊下で本館と別館がつながっている。
Watari rōka de honkan to bekkan ga tsunagatte iru.
The main building and the annex are connected by a covered walkway.
夜の廊下は薄暗く、足音が響いた。
Yoru no rōka wa usuguraku, ashioto ga hibiita.
The hallway at night was dimly lit, footsteps echoing down its length.
この回廊は国宝に指定されている建物の一部だ。
Kono kairō wa kokuhō ni shitei sarete iru tatemono no ichibu da.
This cloister is part of a building designated as a national treasure.
Memory Tip
Break 廊 into its two visible parts. The top-left component 广 — that sweeping roof stroke — tells you this is a kanji about buildings and shelter. The right component 郎, a classical word for a young nobleman, gives the sound ロウ. Picture a young lord (郎) pacing beneath a long roofed shelter (广), his footsteps echoing down its length. That's a 廊. For the sound, imagine calling out in a long corridor — rō... rō... rō... — and hearing your voice roll back to you.