木
ki
The standing tree and the sawn plank are one character
The picture One trunk stands straight with its roots in the ground and its branches reaching out sideways. 木 is wood that lives, grows and bends; 金 is metal melted and hardened into something rigid.
Where the picture shows up in 木
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wood as material
この机は木でできています。
kono tsukue wa ki de dekite imasu
This desk is made of wood.
The rings of the trunk still run in circles across the surface of the desk
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the tree that stands
庭の木を切りました。
niwa no ki o kirimashita
I cut down the tree in the garden.
The trunk that stood in the yard gives way to the saw and tips sideways, branches and all
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a house built of wood
この家は木造です。
kono ie wa mokuzō desu
This house is timber-framed.
Square posts stand upright inside the walls, holding the ceiling up
木造 is 'built of wood': the frame of the house drawn as tree trunks.
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a planted tree you tend
植木に水をやってください。
ueki ni mizu o yatte kudasai
Please water the plants in the bed.
A small trunk is set in soil and water sinks slowly in around its base
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the wood day of the week
木曜日に会議があります。
mokuyōbi ni kaigi ga arimasu
There's a meeting on Thursday.
One square of the calendar is stamped with the wood character and a meeting time written in it
All of it in one picture
木 is one trunk standing in the ground. Leave it in the garden and it is a tree; cut and dry it and it is the 木 a desk is made of. Raise a house out of that material and you get 木造, timber-framed; plant it in a bed and tend it and you get 植木, a garden plant; hang its name on a day and you get 木曜日, Thursday. Standing or sawn, the same trunk is still there in the picture.