頭
This character means ‘head’ (the one on your shoulders) as well as ‘head (of an organization), leader, top.’ In Japanese it’s pronounced many ways, including TŌ, atama, kōbe, and kashira, and in Chinese it’s toú.
The right-hand figure
頁
once represented a man: a head upon a body. The two little bits on the bottom are the body; the majority of the figure above that is the head. (Currently in Japanese and Chinese, though, this character means ‘page, sheet.’)
The left-hand figure
豆
means ‘beans, peas,’ and is there to supply a sound hint for the character. Most of the sound-hint figures we’ve seen so far have been on the right side of the character, but here’s one on the left.
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