All about PATIENCE in Japanese!

Patience says NINTAI in Japanese.

We have several words that represent “patience”, but this is the most common one.
Meanings
The word consists of two kanji symbol. Here’s the meanings of each kanji letter.
NIN = endure, ninja, miss someone
TAI = endure, withstand, resist
Both letters have the meaning of “endure” and that makes “patience”.
Impressions
In Japan, being patient has been considered virtue and it doesn’t have a negative impression.
If you want to use this word for your designs or tattoo, I recommend using the NIN symbol alone because it looks cooker and more artistic.

The NIN stands for ninja and it’s a very Japan-ish character. It gives modest and mature impressions and sometimes used for Japanese first names.

How about TAI?

The TAI symbol doesn’t have an artistic impression. This one is used for daily life things. And we don’t use it for a person’s name.
Background
As for the NIN symbol, the top part of the character stands for “edge of a sword” and the bottom one does “heart”.

Why the sword is related to “patience”

You need to be patient to forge a sword, right? You have to repeatedly hit the iron many times. That’s why the symbol got to mean “patience”.
The second symbol TAI also has the meaning of “endure”. The left part pictures “soft beard” and the right one does “hand”.

Huh? Beard and hand? It doesn’t make any sense.

I agree. The origin of this symbol is a bit complicated. It tries to say “endure something bad flexibly like a soft beard” 😅
Free download
You can download the kanji data with transparent PNG format. Each letter is made in 1000px X 1000px. Available for any purposes and no link or credit is needed. Feel free to take it!

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