初め; 始め
はじめ · hajime · JLPT N5 · noun
beginning
🌅 Karate referees shout hajime! to start a match = begin!
Hajime is the command that opens every judo and karate bout. 初 is the first-time kanji (as in 最初, the very first) and 始 is the begin kanji (as in 始まる, to begin), so both spellings carry the sense of a start.
初 — clothes radical 衤 + knife 刀
初 combines 衤 (clothes) and 刀 (knife), depicting the act of cutting cloth to begin making a garment. From this concrete image of starting a tailoring task came the extended meaning 'beginning' or 'first'. It is an associative compound, not phonetic.