活 - Pour Out the Water of LIFE

Readings & Meanings:

カツ

active, live, activity

Common Usage:

活発

研究活動

生活

復活

復活祭

Examples:

活発な研究活動を続ける。

彼は酒に溺れて生活が乱れた。

キリストの復活を御祝いするのが復活祭だ。

Translations:

I'm continuing my vigorous research.

He drowned himself in sake and his life became disordered.

The celebration of Christ's rebirth is Easter.

Radical:

Ahh, our old friend, San-zui, the three-drop form of 水.

舌 is the phonetic. But waaait. 舌 is not じた, tongue. This 舌 is etymologically distinct from the tongue kanji. This one comes from a pictograph showing a carving tool over a hole. Thus, it showed a hole cut into some kind of vessel.

Later, the water radical was added to show liquid pouring out of that vessel. Kind of like pouring out your life, this kanji became associated with vigor and livlihood.

References:

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/indices/radindex.html
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/node/kanji/7.htm