Today I discovered in kanji two “different” writings for しかる (to scold):
叱る and 𠮟る. I had to look twice (or more) to see the subtle difference.
The good news:
according to jisho, the kanji 叱 and 𠮟 have exactly the same kunyomi, onyomi and meanings.
I’m pretty sure it’s a difference of the one of the top is a left > right stroke with a slight upward angle, while the one below is a right > left downward stroke.
I would describe it as an 異体字, so they are the same in the same way that any other characters with other forms are.
Maybe the most infamous one for having lots of alternate forms is 辺, which you’ll see in all the different ways to write わたなべ (it’s notoriously difficult for Japanese people to keep track of how the わたなべ’s in their life write it in their own cases)
But these aren’t really twins or anything, it’s all just alts.
Here’s an incomplete set
The fun part is that 𠮟 is joyo, but 叱 is not (yet I’m fairly confident that it’s the latter I come across in native material far more often…)
One is indeed 七 (the digit 7) while the other is ヒ (the right part of 化).
They could have been different, but actually they are not. It’s just that people are unsure of how to write it.
