Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 旦 depicts the sun rising above the horizon, representing 'dawn' or 'daybreak.' In its earliest oracle bone script form, it showed a sun (日) with a line or dot below it, symbolizing the horizon. Over centuries, the character simplified to its current form - the sun above a horizontal line. This elegant pictograph perfectly captures the moment when night transitions to day, and by extension came to mean 'morning' or 'the beginning of a new day.' Arrived in Japan: The character 旦 arrived in Japan during the 5th-6th centuries CE, introduced alongside the broader adoption of Chinese writing systems (kanji) through cultural exchange with Korea and China. It was incorporated into the Japanese writing system as part of the early wave of Chinese character importation that formed the foundation of written Japanese.