壴
Radical
Drum
Mnemonic
At a crossroads, you find a pile of dried beans. You grab a hollow gourd and stretch leather over it to make a drum. You fill it with beans—now every beat at the cross produces a magnificent rattling drum sound!
Additional thoughts
Imagine standing where two roads cross, shaking a gourd-drum stuffed with dried beans. The rattling echoes in all four directions. The cross shape of the intersection plus the beans inside the instrument together form the kanji for drum.Quick recall
Dried beans rattle inside a drum played at a crossroads.