I’m looking for the kanji for inner strength. I know that it does not use the kanji for “strength” and after Googling I found a 4 kanji set for it at the bottom of the page here
http://www.futureimplications.com/kanji_katakana_hiragana/kanji.htm
My question is the 3rd kanji from the left (the backwards S with a tail and the square with a vertical line and a triangle on top). Can this kanji be used alone to represent “inner strength”?
The 3rd character means “strong”.
And those aren’t 4 kanji, they are 2 kanji and 2 hiragana. And the nuance is very different from the English phrase “inner strength” - for one thing this Japanese “phrase” is not a phrase but a sentence (“the mind is strong”).
I see an erroneous tattoo in the OP’s future!
Seriously, don’t do it. Especially given that you clearly don’t speak Japanese.
Couldn’t it also be translated as “the heart is strong”? I think that captures “inner strength” better.
That’s why I’m asking! There are a ton of different answers online.
So what would a kanji for inner peace look like?
Oy, do you really want that? Those things just scream “dumb fratboy”; shouldn’t you maybe go for something a bit less trendy to be marked permanently on your skin?
耐久腸
Heh, seriously though. Define “inner strength”, first of all. What does it really mean? Abstract concepts don’t tend to translate directly very well, get as specific as possible. Or else look for a native metaphor that’s a close approximation.
Might not be what you’re looking for, but try the first 100 search terms for “spirit” on Jefferey’s Online dictionary.
That’s about all the help I can give you as far as Japanese goes. If you were looking for Chinese phrases that mean (or can be translated to mean) inner strength I’d be able to be of more assistance.
For another example of the pitfalls involved here, this site gives 内力 as a translation for “inner strength”.
Maybe it means that in Chinese, but in Japanese its a scientific term for internal stress.
I’d recommend not using the internet for this.
Yes I do. After my daughter’s death, I discovered how emotionally strong I could. I want to get a tattoo of a hummingbird (for her) with a symbol representing this strength. I don’t care if the symbol looks like two ostriches taking a shit, I just want something that means what I want and not something that would be interpreted as “physical strength of the organs” or other crap I’ve seen online.
Yeah, I’d go for one of those tribal armbands instead. Now those are kewl!! 
Sage advice.
It’s just not possible, in my opinion. The closest I can think of is 精神力, but that’s closer to “mental power” than “inner strength.”
Don’t expect each English word and phrase to have a counterpart in every other language. Language doesn’t work like that. If it did, there’d be no need for a translator or interpreter; all you need is a dictionary.
My condolences on your daughter’s death. I can’t imagine what it would be like to experience that.
But I’d submit that it might be more meaningful if you got the tattoo in a language you speak.
Go read Hanzismatter, then decide whether you still want to get that tattoo.
what context of “strong”? physical? mental? emotional?
It’s the most common Japanese word for strong/powerful. It could be used for things such as “a strong man”, “a strong smell”, “heavy rain”, “a strong will”, etc. Its usage is pretty diverse… I’d say that it is usually physical, but can be mental/emotional as well.
That’s not the point. It’s not a matter of whether the characters are “ugly” or not.
Digression: They will almost certainly be ugly, or plain at best. Most kanji/hiragana/hanzi/etc tattoos are done by people with horrible penmanship, and almost no idea of what good penmanship looks like. Street beggars in Hong Kong have better penmanship. Dyslexic third-graders in West Bumfuk, China have better penmanship. At best, they’re computer fonts, things you’d see on typed documents. What would you think of someone who got “Inner Strength” tattooed in Times New Roman or Comic Sans?
Yeah. It looks just as bad to anyone with a clue.
Back to the point:
It’s not how it looks. It’s a farce. It’s disrespectful to Japanese culture and it’s disrespectful to your daughter. Unless she was a Japanophile or something (in which case I’m tremendously sorry for this rant), what additional significance does “inner strength” take on when you write it in a language you don’t know and don’t (seem to) have much connection with in the first place? It’s been condensed into a single symbol (or two or three), instead of fifteen? Who cares? It’s meaningless to you; you can’t read it. I could tell you that you want 馬鹿 and it would mean all that to you until someone burst your bubble. It only has meaning to you because someone told you it does. Yeah, that’s a really fine tribute to the impact she made on your life. I bet she’d be really proud of that.
That said… if you have a good reason I don’t know about (in which case, again, I’m very sorry) or heart’s really set on this particular bit of cosmically-scaled idiocy, the least I can do for your daughter is make sure she isn’t remembered with 馬鹿 or in the Japanese equivalent of Comic Sans. Talk to Daisuke over at JList. He’s a native speaker and a pretty damn good calligrapher; I’m sure he’ll be able to help pick exactly the right words you need and express them just the way you need them done; you can take the shuuji in to a good tattoo artist and have it copied. Make sure that it’s copied exactly, to line widths, line shapes, and those fine brush-marks when a stroke dies off just so; these are extremely important in what makes well-formed calligraphy.
I think you understand what you feel but you don’t really understand what you want to say. Characters are just ways to make words in other languages, living languages that people use every day, languages that may not have direct translations for “inner strength.” Characters don’t magically provide meaning or depth, you’re the one who has to do that.
In the spirit of assistance, I would suggest “gaman” which means endurance, patience, or perserverance. It is a common word that doesn’t sound awkward or obscure. It doesn’t have anything to do with “inner”, but you’re not really talking about “inner”. You’re talking about mental, emotional, spiritual, which is captured by this word. It is written: 我慢
And don’t forget, this is a real Japanese word, it may not mean the same in Chinese, so when you point at your arm you should say “this is gaman, which is the Japanese word for perserverance” not “these are the kanji for perserverance.”
I really don’t mean to be a wet blanket, but the word has a very wide meaning beyond “perseverence.” It’s more commonly used to mean suppressing desires or biological needs and enduring it. If a child says “Mommy, I need to go to the bathroom!”, the mom would tell the kid to gaman till the next gas station. Or if I really want to buy a new bike but should be saving the money for something else, I’d gaman.
ishi (意志) might work better. It’s close to “will,” as in free will or will power. I think this is a pretty safe choice - it only refers to human will, and I can’t think of any alternate meanings. It doesn’t by itself mean strong will, but I think the implication would be clear.
Yes, I understand that, I provided several meanings and did not undertake to provide all of them.
Respectfully, that’s incorrect. Gaman applies equally to all forms of perserverance, physical or mental. If anything, I have heard it more commonly used for perserverance in non-physical regards.