Are there any 2 kanji that look exactly the same?

Japanese Language Kanji
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So I kind if messed up a little and did not realise that 未 and 末 as well as 部室 and 部屋 looked different… for a while I thought they looked exactly the same in appearance so it I got the meaning wrong I would just ignore answer and go for the second meaning. I know there are a lot of kanji that look similar but arent like 僕 業 働く 動く but I have not had any issue noticing these differences. So, will I encounter any kanji that look exactly identical or will there always be at least a minute difference?

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柿 (persimmon, vertical line on right side is two strokes) and 杮 (wood chips, vertical line on right side is one stroke) look identical in some fonts. And some fonts don’t bother having two characters.

But this is mostly a trivia thing, you’re unlikely to ever see the wood chips one in real life.

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I see! I will just have to look more closely with some of these.

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There’re a decent number of kanji that look extremely similar in certain fonts (or if they’re small enough), but there’s usually some sort of difference. Like 已 can look a lot like 己 or 巳 in writing or with small fonts.

Though when I read this question, the first thing I thought of was this one. It looks identical to the very common 芸, but it’s not.

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日 and 曰 look quite similar if you’re not paying attention.

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I don’t know about completely identical but 烏 (crow) and 鳥 (bird) look very similar depending on the font.

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Well… I came to this thread expecting the answer to be no. And well that might be true your answer also broke my brain. WHY JAPANESE PEOPLE!!! WHY!!!

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We also have words in English that have the exact same spelling and pronunciation, but two different meanings. No reason to hold Japanese to higher standards of reasonableness.

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In my browser both get rendered the exact same kanji and Rikaichamp also agrees. What’s the difference?

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Yeah hang on a moment, what IS the difference?

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The cut on the top left.

Edit: or are you talking about 芸?

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美 業 寒 実
I remember these used to trip me up heaps, and they’re not even that similar. I’d always think it was one or the other, but overtime vocab helped mend this.

yeah.

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Then there’s no physical difference. It used to look different, but fonts are using the same character now.
You can see the older version here for instance:
https://www.kanjipedia.jp/kanji/0000365500

(The top part used to be cut)

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If the kanji are exactly the same, then wouldn’t it be a single kanji with several meanings? :thinking:

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That’s more a problem of standardized font. But sure, I guess eventually people will see it this way. In the meantime, though, it’s still officially a different kanji.

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Oh man! I had that particular problem for what felt like ages. Eventually I’ll latch on to some detail that lets me distinguish similar-looking kanji.

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That’s exactly what I came here to say.

Basically, if they’re the same, they’re not different. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Y’all are way too advanced.

Despite living in Japan and studying everyday now since January, I still mix up ソwith ン… :sweat_smile:

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laughs in ancient Japanese

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I understand this with different intonation on the word itself differentiates itself from the noun form from the verb form.

I was mainly just referencing good old Jason.

My main gripe with this is the font styling… not sure of the exact name.

But of course this is a very rare case it seems. Also all the resources I use actual don’t give tell you how to write 杮 (こけら) vs 柿 (かき). I asked some of my teachers and they actually only knew the second one and read the first one as the second one. These are going to be a great addition to the kanji I know to impress the old guys I go drinking with.

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