音読み: シン
訓読み: たきぎ・まき
画数: 16
部首: 艹（くさかんむり）
Meaning
Firewood / Fuel / Kindling
- 薪 — firewood
- 薪炭 — fuelwood and charcoal
- 薪割り — chopping firewood
薪 combines the grass radical 艹 with 新 (new). The idea is of freshly gathered plants or wood used as fuel. Over time, it came to mean firewood, kindling, or fuel — things gathered from nature to sustain fire.
Picture 炭 — glowing charcoal. To make charcoal, you first need 薪 — bundles of firewood. Together, 薪 and 炭 show the cycle of burning wood into charcoal, essential for warmth, cooking, and traditional crafts. The instinctive link: 薪 is what feeds the fire, 炭 is what remains glowing after.
薪割り — chopping firewood; splitting logs