167. The "Metal" Radical: 金

The eight-stroke "metal" radical has a great deal in common with the autonomous 金 kanji:

金 (14: metal (esp. gold); money; Friday; Venus)

The "metal" radical takes its English name from the primary meaning of this kanji. ("Money" and "gold" are alternate radical names, again based on the definitions of 金.)

Just as the character has the kun-yomi of かね, the Japanese radical name is かね. 

We can use that name when speaking of the radical in the 金 kanji itself. The same applies to the radical in this character:

釜 (1950: metal pot)     

In 31 other Joyo kanji, the on-duty 金 radical lies on the left side of a character, as in these examples:

録 (611: record, register)

鋭 (1018: sharp, acute; excellent)

鈍 (1671: dull; slow)

銘 (1847: inscription; established name; to engrave on one's mind)

In such cases (that is, most of the time), we can refer to the radical as かねへん. The -へん means "radical on the left side of a kanji."

By the way, did you notice a pattern among the definitions of those four kanji? 

Etymologically, both 録 (611) and 銘 (1847) have to do with inscribing words in metal, and that meaning is still relevant to both kanji. "A metal inscription is an enduring record," says Henshall in his etymological analysis of 録, which primarily means "record."  

Meanwhile, 鋭 (1018) literally represents a "sharp-edged tool/item," says Henshall in his newer edition, attributing that sense to the metal on the left and the shape on the right, which might convey the associated sense "sharp" or "small and sharp." The Japanese use 鋭 to describe not only physical sharpness but also the keenness of senses and the nimbleness of minds. With 鈍 (1671), says Henshall in that edition, we instead have a blunt and rounded blade on the right. By extension, 鈍 can represent dimwittedness. Thus, these two kanji are antonyms, all thanks to the properties of the metals they contain! 

Your Basic Metals

In Exhibit 50 of Crazy for Kanji (pages 114–115), I explored the theme of metal in Japan because I was intrigued by the kun-yomi of kanji such as these:

銀 (263: silver; abbrev. of "bank"), しろがね, which literally means "white metal"

鉄 (353: iron), くろがね, which literally means "black metal"

銅 (758: copper), あかがね, which literally means "red metal"

All three words give colorful indications of the perceived colors of these metals. Incidentally, the がね is the voiced かね (the yomi of 金).

As I wrote in the book, the Japanese have used iron tools since around 300 BCE, having borrowed that manufacturing knowledge from China. At that point Japan was at least seven centuries away from borrowing characters from China, so although the Japanese had iron and a word for that metal, it would be eons before they could represent that word in kanji! 

When they did acquire characters for metals (and for everything else), they could have quite logically written しろがね as 白金, but instead that corresponds to はっきん, "platinum." The Japanese matched their very descriptive spoken terms with characters and words that the Chinese had already created for various metals.

In the same exhibit, I also touched on these two kanji:

鉛 (1029: lead), which turns out to be another "white" metal (etymologically speaking), because its right side phonetically expresses "white," says Henshall. The kun-yomi of 鉛 is なまり, which breaks with the "color + がね" scheme.

鋼 (864: steel), which has the kun-yomi of はがね. That sounds like it might fit the "color + がね" scheme but doesn't. Instead, according to Daijisen and Kojien, はがね comes from 刃金 (blade + metal), which translates as "steel." In fact, Breen shows that 刃金 is an alternate rendering of 鋼. In that kanji, the 岡 means "hill" and contributes the sense of "formidable" and "strong," producing a composite meaning of a "strong/formidable metal," says Henshall.

 

Things Made of Metal

Surveying the Joyo kanji containing our radical, one realizes just how much we need metal on a daily basis. 

With metal, we buy things:

銭 (734: money; coin; fee; small monetary unit)

We repair and inject things:

針 (905: needle)

We secure things:

鎖 (1286: chain, link)

錠 (1423: lock; pill)

鍵 (2002: key; lock)

We cook things:

鉢 (1705: bowl; flowerpot; crown of head)

鍋 (2088: cooking pot; pan)

Most of us don't use the following tools, but some people do, wielding them to bring down vegetation or living creatures:

鎌 (1980: sickle)

銃 (1365: gun)

By contrast, we all use this instrument, and some of us do so far too often:

鏡 (462: mirror; lens; scope)

By the way, the next kanji also has to do with mirrors:

鑑 (1117: model, material; consideration; mirror)

That is, this character combines "metal" with "to watch." The right side literally means "to stare at one's reflection," says Henshall. In Chinese, he notes, 鑑 can still mean "metal mirror," but in Japanese it evolved to mean "to scrutinize" and "to take note of; heed." He makes one more cool point; the Joyo kun-yomi かんがみる derives from かがみ (mirror) + みる (to look). Actually, 鑑 also has the non-Joyo kun-yomi of かがみ, and as such it means "model, pattern," as in, "He's the perfect model of a doctor." In this sense, 鑑 is a figurative mirror of perfection.

Doing Things with Metal

We couldn't have so many metallic items in our lives unless there were ways of casting metal into desirable shapes. The following kanji involve that activity, as Henshall explains in his newer edition:

鍛 (1569: to train; forge), where the right side phonetically expresses "hit, strike," giving us "beat and temper heated metal." 

鋳 (1586: casting, minting), which etymologically relates to "melt and pour metal" or "pour molten metal everywhere within a mold"—that is, "casting."

錬 (1933: to refine or work (metals); to train), where the right side—originally 柬 (to select)—phonetically conveys "soften," "liquefy," or "process, treat." Thanks to those senses, the overall character etymologically represents "to soften and forge metal," "ore liquefies," or "treat metal (by heating)," respectively.