radicals.html

---
layout: default
title: Radicals
name: radicals.html
---

<div class="page-header">
  <h1>Radicals in KanjiVG</h1>
</div>

<p>
  KanjiVG contains information on
  the <a href="glossary.html#radical">radical</a> used by each
  kanji. Since different authors use different radicals for the same
  kanji, it provides several different choices of radical, such
  as <code>general</code> for generally-accepted radicals,
  or <code>nelson</code>
  for <a href="glossary.html#nelson-radicals">the radicals used by the
  Nelson kanji dictionary</a>. See
  <a href="svg-format.html#radical">the SVG Format page</a> for a
  complete list of possible values.
</p>

<p>
  This page details the choices made for the values of
  <a href="svg-format.html#element"><code>kvg:element</code></a>, the visual
  representation of a kanji radical.
</p>

<p>
  For all of the <a href="glossary.html#variant-radical">non-variant
  radical</a> forms, there are two equivalent Unicode code points with
  the same visual form. One is in
  the <a href="glossary.html#kangxi-radicals-block">Kangxi Radicals
  block</a>, and the other is in
  the <a href="glossary.html#cjk-unified-ideographs">CJK Unified
  Ideograph block</a>, where the same radicals are scattered
  throughout. The equivalence between these two sets of identical
  radicals is given in the Unicode Character Database (UCD) in the
  file
  <a href="https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/CJKRadicals.txt">CJKRadicals.txt</a>,
  which maps between the pairs.
</p>

<p>
  <strong>
    KanjiVG uses only the CJK Unified Ideograph versions of these
    equivalent entries.
  </strong>
  KanjiVG does not use the Kangxi Radicals block at all. Where a
  <a href="glossary.html#variant-radical">variant radical</a> is used,
  KanjiVG also specifies the
  the <a href="svg-format.html#original"><code>kvg:original</code></a>
  field on the group. This also does not use the Kangxi Radicals block
  at all.
</p>

<p>
  However, KanjiVG does use some parts of
  the <a href="glossary.html#cjk-radicals-supplement">CJK Radicals
  Supplement block</a>. For example U+2E97 ⺗ is used for
  the <span class='romaji'>shitagokoro</span> variant of Kangxi
  radical 61, rather than
  the <a href="glossary.html#cjk-unified-ideographs">CJK Unified
  Ideographs</a> equivalent form U+38FA 㣺. The following section
  details the choices made by the KanjiVG authors.
</p>

<section id="radicals-used">

<h2>Radicals used</h2>

<section id="shin-nyo">
  <h3>
    Shin-nyō
  </h3>

<p>
  The radical used for Kangxi radical 162, "walk", known
  as <span class='romaji'>shin-nyō</span> in Japanese, is either
  U+8FB6 辶 for groups of four strokes, or U+2ECC ⻌ for groups of
  three strokes. (Depending on the font, U+8FB6 may appear to contain
  only three strokes.)
</p>

<p>
  The visually highly similar U+2ECD, from CJK Radicals Supplement,
  and U+FA66, from CJK Compatibility Ideographs, are not used by
  KanjiVG.
</p>

</section>

<section id="shoku-hen">

  <h3>
    Shoku-hen
  </h3>

  <p>
    For Kangxi radical 184, "eat", known
    as <span class='romaji'>shoku-hen</span> in Japanese, 飠 U+98E0
    from CJK Unified Ideographs is used for the eight-stroke variant,
    but ⻞ U+2EDE from CJK Radicals Supplement is used for the
    nine-stroke variant, since there does not seem to be a
    visually-close equivalent in the CJK Unified Ideographs.
  </p>

</section>

<section id="other-radicals">

<h3>
  Other radicals
</h3>

<p id="table-key">
  In the following table, <span class="used">the pink colour</span>
  shows which variant was used for various radicals. The <b>number</b>
  field gives the Kangxi radical number, and the name is the romanised
  Japanese name of the radical.
</p>
<!--
The entries in this table are sorted by the radical number on the left.
-->
<table>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Number
    </th>
    <th>
      Name
    </th>
    <th>
      CJK Uni.
    </th>
    <th>
      Rad. Sup.
    </th>
    <th>
      Notes
    </th>
  </tr>
<!--

This is used in two place in KanjiVG, one is kanji/072af.svg, but not
as a radical. It's also used as the radical for itself, U+353E. So
it's not really useful to add to this table. Software might need to
handle it, so I'm not sure what is best to do.

  <tr>
    <td>
      26
    </td>
    <td>
      <span class="romaji">
	Fushi-zukuri
      </span>
    </td>
    <td class="used">
      㔾 U+353E
    </td>
    <td>
      ⺋ U+2E8B
    </td>
    <td>
      U+353E belongs to "CJK Unified Ideographs Extension A".
    </td>
  </tr>
-->
  <tr>
    <td>
      42
    </td>
    <td>
      <span class="romaji">
	Naogashira
      </span>
    </td>
    <td>
      小 U+5C0F
    </td>
    <td class="used">
      ⺌ U+2E8C
    </td>
    <td>
      Largely <a href="glossary.html#nelson-radicals">a Nelson radical</a>.
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      58
    </td>
    <td>
      <span class='romaji'>Kei-gashira</span>
    </td>
    <td>
      彐 U+5F50
    </td>
    <td class='used'>
      ⺕ U+2E95
    </td>
    <td>
      Largely <a href="glossary.html#nelson-radicals">a Nelson radical</a>.
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      61
    </td>
    <td>
      <span class="romaji">
	Risshinben
      </span>
    </td>
    <td class="used">
      忄 U+5FC4
    </td>
    <td>
      ⺖ U+2E96
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      61
    </td>
    <td><span class="romaji">Shita-gokoro</span></td>
    <td>㣺 U+38FA</td>
    <td class="used">⺗ U+2E97</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      85
    </td>
    <td>
      <span class='romaji'>
	Sanzui
      </span>
    </td>
    <td class='used'>
      氵 U+6C35
    </td>
    <td>
      ⺡ U+2EA1
    </td>
    <td>
      As an exception, U+2EA1 is used as the element for the special
      case of U+2EA1 itself.
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      85
    </td>
    <td>
      <span class="romaji">
	Shitamizu
      </span>
    </td>
    <td class="used">
      氺 U+6C3A
    </td>
    <td>
      ⺢ U+2EA2
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      87
    </td>
    <td>
      <span class="romaji">
	Tsume-kanmuri
      </span>
    </td>
    <td>
      爫 U+722B
    </td>
    <td class="used">
      ⺤ U+2EA4
    </td>
    <td>
      U+722B does not form part of
      the <a href="glossary.html#jis-levels">JIS Level one and two
      kanji standards</a>, so it was never an element of KanjiVG,
      hence unlike
      <span class='romaji'>sanzui</span>
      and <span class='romaji'>kemono-hen</span> there is no
      "self-exception" for this character.
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      90
    </td>
    <td>
      <span class='romaji'>
	Shō-hen
      </span>
    </td>
    <td>
      丬 U+4E2C
    </td>
    <td class='used'>
      ⺦ U+2EA6
    </td>
    <td>
      Largely <a href="glossary.html#nelson-radicals">a Nelson radical</a>.
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>94</td>
    <td><span class='romaji'>Kemono-hen</span></td>
    <td>
      犭 U+72AD
    </td>
    <td class='used'>
      ⺨ U+2EA8
    </td>
    <td>
      As an exception, U+72AD is used as the element for the special
      case of U+72AD itself.
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      122
    </td>
    <td>
      <span class="romaji">
	Yokome
      </span>
    </td>
    <td class="used">
      罒 U+7f52 
    </td>
    <td>
      ⺫ U+2EAB
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      146
    </td>
    <td>
      <span class="romaji">
	Nishi
      </span>
    </td>
    <td class="used">
      覀 U+8980
    </td>
    <td>
      ⻃ U+2EC3
    </td>
    <td>
      As an exception, U+2EC3 is used as the element for the special
      case of U+2EC3 itself.
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      163
    </td>
    <td>
      <span class='romaji'>
	Ōzato
      </span>
    </td>
    <td>
      阝 U+961D
    </td>
    <td class='used'>
      ⻏ U+2ECF
    </td>
    <td>
      The character U+961D is actually radical 170 rather than 163,
      but it may be substituted for radical 163 as well as for
      170. KanjiVG clearly distinguishes the two using U+2ECF for this
      radical.
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      170
    </td>
    <td>
      <span class='romaji'>
	Kozato-hen
      </span>
    </td>
    <td>
      阝 U+961D
    </td>
    <td class='used'>
      ⻖ U+2ED6
    </td>
    <td>
      As an exception, U+961D is used as the element for the special
      case of U+961D itself.
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p>
In all cases not documented above, the version from the CJK Unified
Ideographs rather than from the CJK Radicals Supplement is used.
</p>
</section>
</section> <!-- radicals-used -->

<section id="nelson-radicals">
<h2>Special cases for Nelson radicals</h2>

<h3>Moon/meat</h3>

<p>
In some cases, such as kanji/06716.svg, Nelson changes the number of
the radical from 74 (Moon) to 130 (Meat), with the radical element
remaining the same. KanjiVG deals with this case by creating a doubled
grouping, with the Nelson radical group and the tradit radical group
around the same paths.
</p>
</section> <!-- nelson-radicals -->

<h2>See also</h2>

<p>
  This Unicode 

  <a href="ref.html#cjk-rad-sup-to-unified">
    CJK Radicals Supplement
  </a> 

  page gives information on correspondances between the CJK Radicals
  Supplement and the CJK Unified ideographs.
</p>