So I just learned the kanji for festival, 祭, and it’s supposed to be composed of the radicals “tent” and “jackhammer”. I can see jackhammer, but is tent correct? It looks like it’s close but not quite. There are extra lines or bends that aren’t in that radical.
Yes, the top of “festival” is originally a modified version of 月 and 又.
It does looks similar to the “tent” radical to some extent, so I guess they just decided to go with that. They go with similar looking radicals over adding new ones a few times.
Yeah, this is the problem - sometimes radicals get a bit distorted There’s a similar case with “mask” radical:
sometimes it’s presented like this:
And sometimes - like this:
Shouldn’t 月 be ⺼ - Wiktionary, the free dictionary ? It looks similar but according to wiki it’s a component form of ⾁ meat.
See also (if you’re interested) 祭 - Wiktionary, the free dictionary " Ideogrammic compound ( 會意 ): ⺼ (“meat”) + 又 (“hand”) + 示 (“altar, ceremony”) – the hand offers a piece of meat at the altar during a ceremony.
The top is not related to but may be corrupted to 癶 in calligraphy and handwriting. The left part is ⺼ twisted to the left (compare 將, 然). The right part is a form of 又 . As to “hand” that’s the original meaning of 又 in Chinese.
Well, 月 as a radical is often originally 肉 (WaniKani does not distinguish true 月 from にくづき), but yeah, I guess I just looked at the description too quickly.
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