Komorebi: sunlight through the leaves (木漏れ日)

Komorebi (木漏れ日) is the sunlight that filters down through the leaves of trees: the bright patches that shift on a forest path when the wind blows. The kanji say it plainly: 木, tree, 漏, leak, and 日, sun. Sunlight leaking through the trees.

What the kanji say

木 (ki) is a tree, drawn with its branches and roots. In komorebi it’s read ko, a combining form used at the start of a few compounds, such as 木陰 (kokage), the shade of a tree, and 木の葉 (konoha), leaves.

漏 (rou, or moreru) means to leak. The 氵 on its left is water. On the right is 屚: 雨, rain, under 尸, which here stands for a roof. The Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese dictionary from around 100 CE, defines it as water coming down through a hole in the roof. So in 木漏れ日, the light drips through the leaves the way rain drips through a roof.

日 (hi) is the sun, and also a day. After 漏れ it’s read bi. Japanese often softens the first sound of the second word in a compound, a change called rendaku, so 漏れ + 日 becomes more-bi.

An everyday word

Komorebi often turns up in lists of “untranslatable” Japanese words. It is a lovely word, but it isn’t rare: it’s the ordinary word for something everyone has seen on a walk in the park. English can say “dappled sunlight”, though komorebi is more exact. It’s always light coming through trees.

You’ll also see it spelled 木洩れ日, with 洩, another kanji for leaking.

How to use it

• 木漏れ日がきれいだね。

  Komorebi ga kirei da ne.

  The sunlight through the trees is lovely, isn't it?

• 木漏れ日の中を歩いた。

  Komorebi no naka o aruita.

  We walked through the dappled sunlight.

• 窓から木漏れ日が差し込んでいる。

  Mado kara komorebi ga sashikonde iru.

  Sunlight through the leaves is streaming in at the window.

• 天井から水が漏れている。

  Tenjou kara mizu ga morete iru.

  Water is leaking from the ceiling.

• 秘密が漏れた。

  Himitsu ga moreta.

  The secret got out.

• Komorebi is a noun. To say it shines, use 差す (sasu), or 差し込む (sashikomu), to stream in: 木漏れ日が差す.
• 漏れる on its own is an everyday verb. Water, light, sound and secrets can all leak.
• The shade has words too: 木陰 (kokage) is the shade under a tree, and 日陰 (hikage) any shady spot.

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

Picture rain dripping through a hole in the roof (漏). Now swap the rain for sunshine (日) and the roof for leaves (木): 木漏れ日.

The kanji in this lesson

Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.

Draw it

Draw it

Draw it

Sources

• Wiktionary via Kaikki: 木漏れ日
• Dong Chinese: 屚 (Shuowen Jiezi)
• Wiktionary via Kaikki: 漏 (glyph origin)

Written by the Sumi team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict and KANJIDIC2. How we write lessons. Spotted a mistake? Email brightsmilesolutionssupport@gmail.com.