方

方 (X65B9) is unicode character number 26041, KanjiLiberal.

In Japanese, 方 can be pronounced as "Hou" (ほう) and may mean geographical direction (north, south, west, east and intermediate orientations): 北, 南, 西, 東, 北南,..

方 (X65B9) is easy to confuse with KanjiRadical ⽅ (X2F45): some software use similar pictures for these two characters.

北西	北	北東
西		東
南西	南	南東

Fig.1. 方位

⽅ and 方

The two characters look similar. Some programming is required to avoid confusion.
Encoding of characters ⽅ and 方 can be revealed with program du.t
File uni.t also may be required and, in such a case, should be loaded. Then, command

php ../du.t ⽅方

returns the following output:

The array has 6 bytes; here is its splitting:
e2 bd 85 e6 96 b9
array(2) {
  [0]=>
  string(3) "⽅"
  [1]=>
  string(3) "方"
}

Unicode character number 12101 id est, X2F45
Picture: ⽅ ; uses 3 bytes. These bytes are:
xE2 xBD x85 in the hexadecimal representation and
226 189 133 in the decimal representation

Unicode character number 26041 id est, X65B9
Picture: 方 ; uses 3 bytes. These bytes are:
xE6 x96 xB9 in the hexadecimal representation and
230 150 185 in the decimal representation

Semantic

Fig.2. More detailed gradation of ⽅

⽅ may refer to direction at the surface of the Earth or at a geographic map: 北, 西,東, 南.

Usually, the map is oriented in such a way, that the north (北) is at the top, and South (南) is at the bottom.

KanjiRadical ⽅ (X2F45 has similar meaning.

Phonetic

Usually, 方 is pronounced as ほう , Hou.

KanjiRadical ⽅ (X2F45) has similar pronunciation.

However, word/sound Hou (ほう) may have also other meanings:

政 (X653F), put, release, free, liberate

法 (X6CD5), law

Examples

方 appears in the following combinations:

方位（ほうい）

方向（ほうこう）

方角（ほうい）

These expressions have similar meaning (fig.1); for this reason, this meaning is attributed to the first (ant common) character in these expressions.

Graphic

Draw ⽅ or 方

Pictures of 方 look similar to the symbol \( \hbar \) of the reduced Planck constant ( \( \hbar \approx 1.054571817 \times 10^{-34} ~ \text{J}{\cdot}\text{s}\) ).

Drawing of character X2F45 ⽅ and similar character X65B9 方 in figure at right is suggested by jitenon

Confusion

The confusive similarity of characters X2F45 ⽅ and X65B9 方 may cause mistakes: in some cases, the two characters are treated as the same, and in some cases as different.

This confusion is recognized .

In cases of such a confusion, the ascii names X2F45 and X65B9 can be used instead of KanjiRadical ⽅ and KanjiLiberal 方.

References

Keywords

du.t, Japanese, Kanji, KanjiConfudal, KanjiLiberal, KanjiRadical, PHP, Unicode, X2F45 ⽅, X65B9 方, 北, 南, 西, 東

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