Radical 118 or radical bamboo (竹部) meaning "bamboo" is one of the 29 Kangxi radicals composed of 6 strokes. The radical character usually appears at the top of characters and transforms into 𥫗.
As an independent sinogram 竹 is a Chinese character. It is one of the kyōiku kanji or kanji taught in elementary school in Japan. It means bamboo or the middle of a 3-tier ranking system. ==References==