Etymological connection between 門 and 円?


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.




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.




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.

