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I'm curious if there's any historical link between the kanji for "gate",
門{かど}, and the kanji for "circle" or "yen", 円{えん}. If 門 is gate, 円 looks like
a closed gate. Am I being whimsical and seeing patterns in the wind, or is
there a substantive link here?

Please use furigana when writing kanji; I'm a beginning student and don't know
many kanji.
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2014-10-29T14:47:21.877
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2015-04-17T16:15:04.913
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question
kanji etymology history
Etymological connection between 門 and 円?
As noted in the question comments, the kanji 円 was originally 圓. The nutshell
version of the article Yang Muye linked is that monks developed a shorthand
version of 圓 that looked like a box with a vertical line through it:
![shorthand version of 圓 that looks like a box with a vertical line through
it](https://i.stack.imgur.com/HyrNu.gif). Over time, the shape of the
surrounding box changed, likely due to the same anatomical and mechanical
processes that inform any change in handwriting. ![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/smJX9.gif) became ![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/stAbG.gif), and then that became the modern
simplified _shinjitai_ character 円.

門, meanwhile, is a pictogram of a gate. You might run across alternative form
鬥, but otherwise, this character is much more straightforward, both in
semantic development and graphical evolution.

Ultimately, the resemblance between 円 and 門 is purely accidental, and has much
more to do with the constraints placed on kanji shapes and the kinds of
strokes used in handwriting.
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2014-10-31T00:18:25.977
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answer