貝

Shellfish, Shell

かい (kai)

JLPT N4

Interesting Fact

💰🐚 Long before coins became common, beautiful shells were treasured across East Asia as valuable trade items. Because shells represented wealth, the kanji 貝 became the building block for many money-related kanji. Even today, characters like 買 (buy), 販 (sell), 貯 (save), and 賞 (reward) all contain 貝, carrying a reminder of a time when shells were worth real money.

Memory Trick

🐚 Look at 貝 as an open clam shell. The small dot and lines inside are the soft shellfish, while the two legs at the bottom are the shell slightly opened.