What 斎 means
It marks ritual abstinence and purification before sacred service.
The old Chinese dictionary Shuowen Jiezi defines 齋 as abstinence and cleansing in the Eastern Han. Japanese 斎 is the standard modern form of 齋. In Japanese compounds it is read sai (roughly “sigh”); in 斎藤, it is read Saitō (“sigh-toh,” with a long final o), also romanized as Saito or Saitou.
The ritual sense appears in 斎宮, a term associated with shrine service. Buddhist use includes fasting or a ritual meal, while 書斎 means a study room.
In ordinary Japanese prose, it feels formal or learned; it mostly appears in names and set compounds.
For 斎 in Japanese names, preserve the family’s spelling: 斎藤 and 斉藤 use different kanji.
Part of the collection
Who writes 斎
Loading…
Don't confuse it with
1
Related characters
1
Questions people ask
1why does 斎 look different in fonts?
Fonts can follow regional Han conventions and draw the character differently; the underlying character remains the same.
More like this
10
How to type or find 斎
- Search it as
- sai · saito · saitou · itsuki · monoimi · 斎藤 · 斎 齋 · 斎 斉
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
斎\658ECodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.