Hook Character

A curved hook used to catch, hang, fasten, or draw things out.

Classical dictionaries extend that physical idea to curved weapons, belt hooks, fishing hooks, hanging hardware, and probing or drawing out what is hidden. The written form joins 金, the metal element, with 句; traditional analysis treats 句 as the sound-bearing partner while the whole character points back to a curved hook.

The written record is older than Unicode: Han Dian lists 鉤 forms in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, then Spring and Autumn bronzes, Chu bamboo slips, and Han clerical writing. By the Warring States and Han, metal belt hooks were practical fasteners and gear hangers; they later also carried decoration and auspicious associations.

Why does Japanese use 鉤 for 「」?

Because 鉤 means “hook” in 鉤括弧, the hook brackets.

Japanese 鉤括弧 is the name for the corner-bracket pair 「」, used for dialogue, quotations, titles, and marked wording; 『』 is the double pair used for nested quotation or some titles. That is a Japanese punctuation convention, not a new emotional meaning for the standalone character.

This is where language context matters: Chinese readers may meet 鉤 in compounds for tools, weapons, or investigation, while Japanese readers may first meet it as a label for quotation marks. In English, putting ordinary words in quotes can suggest distance or doubt; Japanese quotation marks can also mark emphasis, so carry the convention across languages carefully.