U+6B73 "歳" CJK Unified Ideograph-# Unicode Character

U+6B73 "歳" CJK Unified Ideograph-# is a Han character used in written Japanese and Chinese, where it primarily means "year" or "age." In Japanese, it is commonly employed in contexts such as counting years of age, as in the phrase "juu-hassai" (18 years old), and it also appears in compound words like "saijitsu" (birthday) or "bansai" (literally "ten thousand years," a cheer). While its Chinese counterpart, 岁 (suì), is more standard in modern Simplified Chinese, the traditional form 歳 retains its usage in Classical texts and Japanese orthography. Visually, the character combines elements suggesting a footstep or passage of time, reflecting its etymological roots in the concept of a yearly cycle.