As seen in Du Fu's poem saying 'as my grey hair is short, it seems to be impossible to use kanzashi even though I bundle it,' the original meaning of the Chinese character '簪' was a tool which male officials used in order to fix their court caps.
中国語本来の「簪」は杜甫の白頭掻けば更に短く、渾べて簪に勝えざらんと欲すの詩句に見られるように男性官人が冠を止めるために使ったものである。