田
た · ta · JLPT N3 · noun
field
🌾 Drawn as a field split into four plots; ta as in Tanaka 田中 = field + middle
田 began as a drawing of farmland divided by paths into four plots. Its kun reading ta appears in many surnames: Tanaka 田中 (middle of the field), Yamada 山田 (mountain field). In the word for rice paddy, 田んぼ tanbo, the ta is this same character.
田 — enclosure 囗 + cross 十 (field grid)
田 is a pictograph of a cultivated field divided by raised paths or irrigation ditches into plots, shown as a square with a cross inside. Its original sense was 'farmland,' which it still carries today, and it also serves as a common surname.