Kanji with the fish radical by frequency
Just for fun: Here are all Japanese characters with the fish radical, occurring in Aozora Bunko works, sorted by frequency. Aozora Bunko is a large electronic library of Japanese public domain literary works, including many literary classics with expired copyrights. It contains close to 100 milion words. I downloaded and processed the whole thing, extracted the relevant kanji and computed the frequencies.
In the table below, Count is the total number of occurences, Frequency is relative frequency within the characters sharing the same radical. The Readings and Meanings are taken from KANJIDIC.
Some observations: Only three of them (魚, 鮮, and 鯨) are jōyō (“common use”) kanji (marked in red), yet if you go to a restaurant, you will see plenty of these. (Would a frequency list based on restaurant menus be different?) Most of the characters denote fish, some denote other creatures (鯨 whale, 鰐 alligator, 鮑 abalone), some are related to fish (鮨 sushi, 鰭 fin), and a few have no direct connection with fish (鮮 fresh, 魯 foolish). There is a lot of kokuji (characters created in Japan, as opposed to those imported from China).
Note that characters just containing fish as a component, not radical, are not included (such as 漁).
Tip: If you just want a list of all Chinese and Japanese characters with a certain radical try this (technical note: limited to Unicode BMP).
Character | Count | Frequency | Readings | English meaning |
---|---|---|---|---|
魚 | 14102 | 34.773 % | ギョ うお さかな -ざかな (nanori: い) | fish |
鮮 | 7711 | 19.014 % | セン あざ.やか | fresh, vivid, clear, brilliant, Korea |
鯉 | 1694 | 4.177 % | リ こい | carp |
鮎 | 1661 | 4.096 % | デン ネン あゆ なまず (nanori: あい) | freshwater trout, smelt |
鯨 | 1464 | 3.610 % | ゲイ くじら | whale |
魯 | 1229 | 3.031 % | ロ おろか | foolish, Russia |
鯛 | 1086 | 2.678 % | チョウ たい | sea bream, red snapper |
鱈 | 1060 | 2.614 % | セツ たら | codfish (kokuji) |
鱗 | 1057 | 2.606 % | リン うろこ こけ こけら | scales (fish) |
鰻 | 933 | 2.301 % | マン バン うなぎ | eel |
鮒 | 726 | 1.790 % | ホ フ ブ ふな | carp |
鮭 | 555 | 1.369 % | カイ ケイ さけ しゃけ ふぐ | salmon |
鮨 | 548 | 1.351 % | シ キ すし | sushi, seasoned rice |
鮫 | 545 | 1.344 % | コウ さめ みずち | shark |
鰯 | 541 | 1.334 % | いわし | sardine (kokuji) |
鰹 | 499 | 1.230 % | ケン かつお | bonito |
鰭 | 460 | 1.134 % | キ ギ ひれ | fin |
鰐 | 460 | 1.134 % | ガク わに | alligator, crocodile |
鱒 | 434 | 1.070 % | ソン セン ザン ます | salmon trout |
鰌 | 324 | 0.799 % | シュ シュウ どじょう | loach (fish) |
鯰 | 292 | 0.720 % | ネン なまず | fresh-water catfish (kokuji) |
鰊 | 221 | 0.545 % | レン にしん | herring |
鮪 | 219 | 0.540 % | キ ユウ イ まぐろ しび | tuna |
鯱 | 210 | 0.518 % | しゃちほこ しゃち | fabulous dolphin-like fish, killer whale (kokuji) |
鯖 | 210 | 0.518 % | セイ ショウ さば | mackerel |
鱸 | 198 | 0.488 % | ロ すずき | sea bass |
鮓 | 196 | 0.483 % | サ すし | sushi, seasoned rice |
鰍 | 165 | 0.407 % | シュウ シュ かじか いなだ どじょう | bullhead |
鮑 | 164 | 0.404 % | ホ ホウ あわび | abalone |
鰡 | 158 | 0.390 % | リュウ ル ぼら | type of fish, mullet |
鱶 | 149 | 0.367 % | ショウ ヨウ ふか ひもの | shark |
鰺 | 121 | 0.298 % | ソウ あじ | horse mackerel |
鰈 | 100 | 0.247 % | チョウ トウ かれい | sole, flatfish, flounder |
鰥 | 80 | 0.197 % | カン コン やもめ やもお | widower, unmarried man |
鮠 | 80 | 0.197 % | カイ ゲ ガイ はえ はや | dace (carp) (kokuji) |
鰒 | 77 | 0.190 % | フク あわび ふぐ | abalone, puffer fish |
鰤 | 73 | 0.180 % | シ ソウ ぶり はまち かます | yellowtail |
鮹 | 62 | 0.153 % | ショウ ソウ たこ | octopus |
鱚 | 58 | 0.143 % | きす | sillaginoid (kokuji) |
鱇 | 57 | 0.141 % | コウ | anglerfish |
鯔 | 57 | 0.141 % | シ ぼら とど | mullet (fish) |
鮟 | 57 | 0.141 % | アン | angler-fish |
鰕 | 47 | 0.116 % | カ えび | shrimp, prawn, lobster |
鯡 | 47 | 0.116 % | ヒ にしん はららご | herring |
鱧 | 44 | 0.108 % | レイ はも | conger, sea eel |
鰓 | 44 | 0.108 % | サイ シ えら | gills, gill slits |
鯣 | 39 | 0.096 % | エキ するめ | cuttlefish |
鯵 | 33 | 0.081 % | ソウ あじ | horse mackerel |
鯊 | 32 | 0.079 % | サ シャ さめ はぜ | goby (fish) |
鰮 | 31 | 0.076 % | オン いわし | sardine |
鱠 | 30 | 0.074 % | カイ ケ えそ なます | lizard fish |
魴 | 26 | 0.064 % | ホウ かがみたい おしきうお かがみだい | type of sea bream |
鯤 | 22 | 0.054 % | コン | large mythical fish, roe |
鰆 | 19 | 0.047 % | シュン さわら | Spanish mackerel |
鯒 | 16 | 0.039 % | こち | flathead (fish) (kokuji) |
鮴 | 8 | 0.020 % | めばる まて こち ごり | bullhead, rockfish, razor clam, flathead (kokuji) |
鰔 | 4 | 0.010 % | カン かれい たら | flatfish, turbot, cod |
鰉 | 3 | 0.007 % | コウ ちょうざめ ひがい | sturgeon |
鯢 | 3 | 0.007 % | ゲイ さんしょううお | salamander, female whale, small fish, old person's teeth |
鮃 | 3 | 0.007 % | ヒョウ ヘイ ひらめ | flounder, flatfish |
鰾 | 2 | 0.005 % | ヒョウ ふえ うきぶくろ | fish bladder |
鰰 | 2 | 0.005 % | はたはた | sandfish (kokuji) |
鯀 | 2 | 0.005 % | コン | large mythical fish, proper name |
鰲 | 1 | 0.002 % | ゴウ おおがめ | huge sea turtle |
鰛 | 1 | 0.002 % | オン いわし | sardine |
鯑 | 1 | 0.002 % | かずのこ | yellow fish (herring) eggs (sushi) (kokuji) |
鮗 | 1 | 0.002 % | このしろ | gizzard shad (kokuji) |