音読み: ショウ
訓読み: さく
画数: 9
部首: 口（くちへん）
Meaning
Bloom / Blossom / Flourish.
- 花が咲く — the flowers bloom
- 一季咲き — blooming once in a season
- 遅咲き — late blooming (also: late success)
- 咲き誇る — to be in full bloom; to flourish proudly
- 咲き乱れる — to bloom profusely; riotous bloom
- 戯咲 — “playful bloom” (poetic/literary)
咲 uses the 口 radical (“opening”). Think of a bud that opens like a mouth to the spring air — that’s a flower blooming. The core idea is “opening out,” hence “to blossom; to flourish.”
Think of flowers that bloom (咲) all at once — the opposite of when petals scatter (散) and fall away. 咲 is about the moment of opening and flourishing, in contrast to 散, which marks the breaking apart.
Forms
咲き誇る — to be in full, proud bloom