Taito (kanji) Images

Taito (たいと) is a Japanese indigenous kanji (kokuji), consisting of 84 strokes, which is the highest confirmed: by way of comparison, the simplest kanji has only one stroke, while the majority have fewer than thirty.

Taito is composed of two kanji ("cloud" (雲) and "dragon" (龍) repeated three times each for a total of six characters and has the meaning of "the appearance of a dragon in flight"). It is also a ligature formed from 䨺 (tai) and 龘 (tō). It has also been pronounced daito (だいと) and otodo (おとど), and may have been used in Japanese surnames. While most references mentioned the character as a surname, no thorough investigation has been made, and no individual past or present is known to possess this surname.

The equivalent character in Traditional Chinese, which is also the most complex Traditional Chinese character that can be input using the Microsoft New Phonetic IME 2002a, is 龘 (dá), which is composed of the dragon radical represented three times, for a total of only 48 strokes.

There are two variations of the character (see images), the principal difference being the placement of the first dragon radical. In version 1 (with the possible readings daito and otodo), the first dragon radical is placed between the second and third cloud radicals (starting at the 25th stroke). In version 2 (read taito), the first dragon radical is written after the third cloud radical, starting at the 37th stroke.