Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 新 (new) evolved from ancient pictographs showing an axe (斤) cutting down a tree, originally meaning 'to cut wood.' Over time, it developed the abstract meaning of 'new' - perhaps from the fresh wood that results from cutting, or the concept of renewal. In bronze inscriptions, it clearly shows an axe beside a tree. By the small seal script period, it had standardized into its modern form with 亲 (proximity) and 斤 (axe) components, though the original tree element had transformed. Arrived in Japan: The character 新 likely arrived in Japan during the 5th-6th centuries CE, when the Japanese writing system was developing and adopting Chinese characters (kanji) along with Buddhism and other cultural elements from China via Korean peninsula. It appears in early Japanese texts like the Kojiki (712 CE) and Manyoshu (8th century).