武
Symbols Protection
martial arts
ㄨˇ wǔ
Two versions of the same picture, and both are free with no account and no watermark. The first has no background at all, which is the one to send your artist — but a phone or computer photo viewer set to dark will show black strokes on dark grey and it can look like nothing downloaded. If that happens, use the second one: identical characters on a plain white background. Either way you get the characters on their own — the square and the faint guide lines you see above are not in the file. Each character is 1000px, so a two-character download is 2000×1000, and the script and layout are the ones you picked.
Script
Characters
Same in both
Layout
Rubbing mode: white on black, as a stone rubbing. The download is unaffected.
Trained fighting as a discipline. The single character behind it means martial or military, and is one of the most-tattooed characters there is.
Before you commit
Choose with care武 alone means martial or military, not martial arts. It is broad enough to cover armies and weapons, so on its own it reads more military than sporting.
At small sizesEight strokes with a long hooked diagonal. Legible small, and the diagonal gives it movement on a curved placement.
Cultural noteA much-quoted classical gloss reads 武 as stopping the dagger-axe - fighting in order to end fighting. It is a traditional interpretation rather than a settled origin, but every martial arts student knows it.
Meaning
Martial, military; matters of fighting and arms.
The opposite pole to 文, the civil and literary; Chinese thinks in that pair.
Other characters for “martial arts”
What to do next
Pick the script and layout you want above, download the PNG, and send that file to your artist. Ask them to work from the file rather than redrawing the character freehand — that is where strokes go missing.
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