壱 means “one (formal)”

いち · ichi

Also: one (in documents)

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

ひとつ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

イチ, イツ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 7 strokes

The story

A scholar (士) over a cover (冖) and a spoon (匕): the formal one of contracts and money, used because a plain 一 is easily turned into 二 or 十. Look closely at a ten-thousand-yen note: it reads 壱万円.

Used in 壱 (ichi, one, in formal documents), 壱万円 (ichiman'en, ten thousand yen), and 壱岐 (iki, Iki Island)

More from Old Measures

• 弐 two (formal)
• 丙 third (in a series)
• 斤 axe
• 箇 item
• 第 number (ordinal prefix)
• 丈 length
• 寸 sun (about 3 cm)
• 坪 tsubo (about 3.3 square meters)
• 厘 rin
• 乙 second
• 斗 dipper
• 尺 shaku

Learn 壱 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

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