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My friend asked me if I know what 神仙 means so I tried to look it up and almost
all the results I got were 神仙 instead of 神仙. Which appearently means something
like a hermit or an immortal person that has divine powers. But back to the
question are 神 and 神 basically the same Kanji meaning wise? Maybe someone can
help.
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2023-06-20T18:51:50.277
100013
2023-06-21T10:06:29.727
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question
kanji
Are 神 and 神 the same?
These are alternative forms of each other.

It's a bit hard to tease out the details due to the layout of the information,
but the Wiktionary entry at <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%A5%9E> shows
us that these are ultimately the same thing.

More specifically, the left-hand portion of these two characters (technically,
its [radical](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_\(Chinese_characters\)))
differ only by a minor shift in shape caused by handwriting conventions. It's
a bit like the difference between these two common forms of the lower-case
letter **A** :

# a

# ɑ

One has an extra half-loop on the top, commonly used in printed fonts, and the
bottom is simpler without that extra embellishment, and tends to be more
commonly seen in handwriting.

This kind of simplification is what we see in the "more traditional" version
of the character **神** , and the common "everyday use" version of the
character **神**.

For the kanji, the two versions of the radical are:

# ⺬

# 礻

The topmost horizontal bar in the "traditional" version on top is simplified
to just the top [tittle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tittle) on the simpler
version below. The second horizontal bar and the left independent line in the
top version are combined into the hooked フ second stroke in the simpler lower
version.

I think just about all the kanji that include this radical come in similar
pairs -- one with the older radical **⺬** , and one with the simpler version
**礻**. See also:

  * <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%A5%9D>
  * <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%A4%BC>
  * <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%A4%BE>

... etc.
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2023-06-20T21:10:59.323
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2023-06-20T21:10:59.323
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answer
Yes, 神 and 神 are basically the same kanji with the same meaning. More
precisely, 神 is a [_kyūjitai_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ky%C5%ABjitai)
(historical form), and 神 is the _shinjitai_ (modern form). 神 must be used
almost everywhere now, but the old version may be used intentionally to add
some flavor in a historical drama and such.

Note that Japanese people do not consider them exactly the same. Native
speakers almost certainly notice if the old form (神) suddenly appears in a
sentence. This cannot be compared to true
[allographs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allography) such as two modern
forms of Latin "a" or "g", or [two modern forms of
そ](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/53835/5010), which are hardly
noticeable to modern native speakers.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-21T03:02:16.540
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2023-06-21T10:06:29.727
2023-06-21T10:06:29.727
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answer