Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
Historical forms are not available yet. The current form is shown as a reference.
The kanji "広" (hiroi, wide) originated in China as a simplified form of the character "廣". The original character "廣" is a phono-semantic compound, consisting of the "building" radical (广), which provides the meaning of a large, roofed structure or space, and the component "黃" (kō, yellow), which primarily served a phonetic function to indicate the pronunciation "kwang" in Old Chinese, while also possibly carrying a connotation of vast, open land. Historically, "廣" appeared on Chinese bronze inscriptions during the Zhou Dynasty. Its structure depicts a building that is expansive or open on its front side, conveying the core idea of spaciousness and breadth. The character evolved through various script styles—from seal script to clerical script, and finally to the standard kaisho. The simplified form "広" was created in Japan during the post-WWII period as part of the Tōyō Kanji reform. This simplification replaced the complex component "黃" with the simpler "厶", making the character easier to write while retaining the essential "building" radical that hints at its meaning. The character, in its original "廣" form, was imported to Japan along with the broader Chinese writing system, most likely between the 5th and 6th centuries via Korean peninsula scholars and imported texts. An interesting linguistic note is that while "廣" was officially simplified to "広" in Japan, the original complex form is still used in proper names and some contexts in both Japan and is standard in Traditional Chinese regions. The Japanese simplification "広" is unique to Japan and is not used in China, where a different simplified character, "广", was adopted.