Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The character 苗 (miáo) depicts young plants sprouting from a field. It combines 艹 (grass/plants) over 田 (field), representing tender shoots emerging from cultivated land. Originally meaning 'seedlings' or 'young crops,' it evolved to signify anything young or nascent, including concepts like 'descendants' (as the young of a family). In Chinese, it gives us words like 苗木 (seedlings), 苗条 (slender), and 疫苗 (vaccine - literally 'epidemic seedling'). Arrived in Japan: The character 苗 arrived in Japan during the Yayoi period (300 BCE-300 CE) through cultural exchange with China, likely via Korean peninsula. It was formally incorporated into the Japanese writing system with the introduction of Chinese characters (kanji) between the 5th-6th centuries CE. In Japanese, it's read as 'nae' (seedling) or 'byō' in compounds, and appears in words like 苗木 (naegi - sapling) and 苗字 (myōji - surname, literally 'seedling character').