Hi everyone! Sorry minor q but ... you know the siesta primitive right after No.450 in RTK 1 ... if you look in the book the way it's printed on the left in large font form looks really strange, like this: 曷 Looks like a mixture of 'person' and straightened out 'fish hook' ...not like 'spoon' at all.

Can someone explain?

Yoroshiku!

[Katsuo]

"Bound-up person on L" (as in the rare kanji 曷) and "bound-up spoon" (as in 渇) are variant forms of the same component. In the Joyo kanji set of 1,945 characters the form has been standardised as the latter, but outside the Joyo kanji you may see either.

Which edition of the book do you have? Mine (3rd Ed.) only has the "bound-up spoon" form.

Hope this picture helps ( I just found it by chance) As Katsuo said, they are just (Japanese/Chinese) variants of the same form.

Thanks guys!
Katsuo, I have the fifth edition so I guess that explains it. I guess it's just one of those things like 辻 where sometimes the form varies. (The character before can be written with one or two drops I believe)
liosama, where did you find those pictures? They're really cool.

Ella Niamh: Sometimes you can try randomly Google image searching a kanji character, you may either find lots of naked women, calligraphy, or famous people. Or just complete garbage.

You'll get used to it if you're stupid like me and need some ideas for making stories.