The small ke is a common Japanese character.

It is an abbreviation for the kanji 箇, which is used as a counter word. Although it resembles the katakana

Katakana

is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...

 character ke

Ke (kana)

け, in hiragana, or ケ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent . The shape of these kana come from the kanji 計 and 介, respectively....

 (ケ), it is pronounced ka, ga or ko, not ke.

The small ke is found in some counters and place names. When it is used in a counter word, such as 1ヶ月 (ikkagetsu, one month [duration]) it is pronounced ka.

When used in a place name, such as 青木ヶ原 (Aokigahara

Aokigahara

, also known as the , is a 35 km2 forest that lies at the north west base of Mount Fuji in Japan. The forest contains a number of rocky, icy caverns, a few of which are popular tourist destinations....

), it is pronounced ga. The combination "～ヶ原" (gahara) means "field of～" and appears occasionally in Japanese place names. This is a rule of thumb with numerous exceptions. For example, in 三ヶ日 (Mikkabi

Mikkabi, Shizuoka

was a town located in Inasa District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.On July 1, 2005 Mikkabi, along with the town of Haruno, from Shūchi District, the towns of Hosoe and Inasa, all from Inasa District, the towns of Sakuma and Misakubo, the village of Tatsuyama, all from Iwata District, the towns of...

, place name) it is pronounced ka.