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 戻 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字) formed during the Shuowen Jiezi era in China. Its semantic component is the radical 戸 (door), while its phonetic component is 犬 (dog). The original meaning was "to pull open a door," with the character construction evoking the image of a dog using its body or snout to push or pull a door open, causing it to swing back and forth. This action of swinging back to an original position is the conceptual root of its "return" meaning. Historically, the character's usage and form were standardized in China. It was imported to Japan in waves, primarily through the introduction of Chinese written texts, most systematically during the Asuka and Nara periods (6th to 8th centuries) via Buddhist scriptures, official documents, and classical literature. The Japanese language adopted the character and its core meaning of "to return" or "to send back," integrating it into the native lexicon with readings such as the Sino-Japanese *rei* and the native Kun'yomi *modo(ru)*. An interesting linguistic note is the semantic shift and specialization that occurred in Japanese. While in modern Chinese the character 戻 is largely obsolete or used in very limited contexts, it became a standard, common-use kanji in Japan. Its meaning expanded beyond physical return to include abstract concepts like reverting to a previous state, as seen in words like 戻る (modoru - to return) and 戻入 (reinyū - re-entry). This demonstrates how Japan preserved and actively developed the usage of a character that diminished in its country of origin.