閥 means “clique, clan, faction”

ばつ · batsu

Also: lineage, pedigree

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

バツ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 14 strokes

The story

A gate (門) with a person (亻) and a halberd (戈) inside: picture a clan's gateway guarded against outsiders. 閥 is a closed circle: a party's 派閥, the old 財閥 family empires like Mitsui and Mitsubishi, and 学閥, an old-school-tie network.

Used in 派閥 (habatsu, faction), 財閥 (zaibatsu, family conglomerate), and 学閥 (gakubatsu, old-school clique)

More from Politics & Diplomacy

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• 唐 Tang China
• 呉 Wu (ancient China)
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• 閣 cabinet
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• 衆 crowd
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Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.