The kanji 肝 primarily represents the "liver," a vital organ in the human body. It can also be used metaphorically to refer to the "essence" or "core" of something, indicating its fundamental nature or importance.

・On-yomi (音読み): カン (kan) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): きも (kimo)

⚫︎ 肝臓 (kanzou) Translation: Liver ⚫︎ 肝心 (kanjin) Translation: Important; essential; crucial ⚫︎ 肝を冷やす (kimo o hiyasu) Translation: To be frightened; to be scared stiff

The kanji 肝 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字). The left side, 月 (tsuki/getsu), is a simplified form of 肉 (niku), meaning "meat" or "flesh" and acts as the semantic component, indicating that the character relates to a part of the body. The right side, 干 (kan), is the phonetic component, providing the sound "kan." Therefore, the character 肝 combines the meaning of "body part" with a phonetic element to represent the "liver."