Small Forest in Chinese / Japanese...

林 refers to a small forest, a grove, a thicket, or the woods.

In Chinese, this can be the surname Lin. It's also the lin in Shaolin (referring to the monks of the Shaolin temple).

The symbology of this character is two trees side-by-side. Take a look, you can see the tree figures.

少林流 is the Japanese martial arts title “Shorin-ryu.”

Though the first part of the title comes from the Shaolin (small forest) monks of China.
In Japan, this refers to the Okinawa School of Karate.

Note that often in Japanese, the first Kanji of this title was changed to the version shown to the right. If you prefer this version, please click on the Kanji to the right instead of the button above.

This is the Vietnamese surname Lam in the original Chinese form.

Before Vietnam romanized, 林 was the way to write Lâm. This is also a surname in Chinese and the meaning is “small forest.”

林 is the Chinese character for the surname Lim.

The meaning is small forest.

林 is a surname in many dialects but with varying romanizations:
Lín (Mandarin)
Lam, Lum, Lem (Cantonese)
Hayashi (Japanese)
Lim (Thai)
Lâm (Vietnamese)
Ling (Eastern Min, Northern Min, Wu Chinese)
Lim, Liem (Min Nan or Hokkien, Teochew, Korean, Taiwanese Minnan, Indonesian)