管 means “manage, pipe”

かん · kan

Also: tube, wind instrument, drunken talk

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

くだ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

カン

JLPT N2 · Taught in grade 4 · 14 strokes

The story

Bamboo (⺮) and an official (官): a hollow bamboo pipe, and the clerk who keeps things flowing through it. 管 is a tube, as in 血管, a blood vessel, and 管理 is management: many Japanese apartment blocks have a 管理人, the caretaker.

Used in 管理 (kanri, management), 保管 (hokan, storage/safekeeping), and 血管 (kekkan, blood vessel)

More from Business & Trade

• 券 ticket
• 販 sell
• 換 exchange
• 損 loss
• 募 recruit
• 貨 goods
• 郵 mail
• 雇 hire
• 替 replace
• 預 deposit
• 営 run a business
• 輸 transport

Learn 管 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.