姦

Ideogrammatic compound:

Composed of 女 (woman) written three times (女女女).

The repetition intensifies the idea, originally signifying excess of women together, hence sexual misconduct.

Variant: 奸, where 女 indicates meaning and 干 (to interfere) supplies the phonetic element.

강간 (强姦) — rape

간통 (姦通) — adultery

간사하다 (姦邪) — to be treacherous, deceitful

In Japanese “name kanji” lists, even characters with negative or taboo meanings — such as 姦 (fornication), 惡 (evil), 狂 (madness), and 嫌 (dislike) — are included. This is because all kanji taught in schools are automatically part of the approved name list.

Such characters sometimes take on softened or inverted nuances in names. For example, when paired with characters like 不 (not) or 無 (without), the resulting compound may flip into a positive meaning (e.g., “not evil,” “without misfortune”).

This reflects a traditional East Asian approach where the semantic force of characters can be rebalanced by context, and negative imagery can serve protective or talismanic purposes.

奸, 姧