方 — the “square” radical

Radical #70 4 strokes

direction, side 7 of the JLPT kanji on this site are built with it — recognizing the piece makes them far easier to remember.

Kanji using the 方 radical (7)

方direction, person 施give, bestow 族tribe, family 旅trip, travel 旗flag, banner 旋rotation, go around 於at, in

← 斤 axe 无 not →

Radicals (部首, bushu) are the shared building blocks of kanji, used to sort them in every dictionary. Learn the common ones and new kanji stop looking random.