pelt, skin, hide, leather, skin radical (no. 107)
皮 centers on the outer covering of an animal or object: skin, hide, pelt, or leather. The radical sense is the same skin shape used as a component in other characters.
皮 is a pictograph of a hand peeling skin from an animal carcass. The modern form preserves the hand shape 又 and the skin shape, though the exact ancient drawing is stylized.
The top part suggests a hand 又 peeling off a layer of skin or hide. Picture a hand stripping the outer covering from an animal: 皮 is skin, leather, or pelt.
For ヒ, imagine a hand peeling off a piece of skin and saying 'he' (ヒ) as it comes off: he -> ヒ, and the skin is removed.
skin; hide; pelt; fur
skin
irony; sarcasm; cynicism; satire
fur; skin; pelt
scalp
beginning; start
lowly people (Edo period); eta
ecdysis; shedding (of skin); sloughing; molting; moulting; casting off
epidermis; cuticle
barfin flounder (Verasper moseri)
sebum; sebaceous matter
cortex
bark (of a tree, etc.)
leather; hide
subcutaneous; hypodermic
outer layer (e.g. of skin); cuticle; epidermis; bark; rind; crust; film (on the surface of a liquid); scum
to make a cynical remark (about); to make a sarcastic remark (about); to satirize; to mock
foreskin; prepuce
skin; outer skin; integument; husk; hull; shell; crust; rind; envelope; exodermis; pellicle
film; membrane