TsukiGatsu

⽉, Moon, Mesiats

TsukiGatsu is set of the following Unicode characters:

1. X2F49 ⽉
   
2. X2E9D ⺝
   
3. X2EBC ⺼
   
4. X6708 月
   

In Japanese, a TsukiGatsu character may mean Moon or month: name of month or unit of time.
In Japanese, a TsukiGatsu may sound つき, tsuki or がつ, gatsu, or げつ, getsu.
Characters of TsukiGatsu can also have other meanings and pronunciations depending on the context.

月: つき, tsuki, moon

月: がつ, gatsu

Name TsukiGatsu

At least as of 2026, variation of glyphs of characters of TsukiGatsu, from one software to another, from one font to another,
is stronger, that variation between views of these characters at the same font.
At TORI, all the views of the TsukiGatsu characters are qualified as the same glyph.

The similar view of different characters cause confusions. In order to handle them, the glyph needs to have a name. While no established name for this glyph is found, in TORI, it is denoted with term «TsukiGatsu».

This term is used as name of the set of 4 characters, but also as qualification of each of these characters.

Confuse

The problem with the TsukiGatsu is deeper than just learning of Japanese.

Even a native Japanese speaker looking at characters ⽉, ⺝, ⺼, 月, is unlikely to guess:
Which of them is character X2F49 («KANGXI RADICAL MOON» ) ?
Which of them is character X2E9D («CJK RADICAL MOON» ?
Which of them is character X2EBC («CJK RADICAL MEAT» )?
Which of them is character X6708 («CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-6708» )?

This confusion appears as the interpretation of printed text, announced, billboards, etc.

the generic term TsukiGatsu can be used instead of absurdly-complicated construction «⽉ or ⺝ or ⺼ or 月».

Uniglif and Tarja

In sci-fi «Tartaria», the default font «Uniglif» is mentioned. In that font, all the ascii characters, the TwoBitCharacters and the ThreeBitCharacters have standard and well-distinguishable glyphs providing bijective relation between set of glyphs and set of characters (at least for the first 3 parts of the Unicode table). In century 22, the standardization of the 4 bit characters is still under discussion: they are too many; it is difficult to design some millions well-distinguishable glyphs.

In real life, many usual glyphs have not yet assigned unique and established Unicode numbers.

In order to avoid the confusions, the technical language Tarja can be used instead of Japanese.

At the translation from Japanese to Tarja of a Kanji from set TsukiGatsu, words つき, tsuki, がつ, gatsu, or げつ, getsu can be used dependently on the context, as well as the words borrowed from English: Moon, Luna or Month.

As an alternative, the explicit number of the of the character can be indicted instead, 2F49, 2E9D, 2EBC or 6708.

As an alternative, the names by cite "util.unicode" can be used:
«KANGXI RADICAL MOON» ,
«CJK RADICAL MOON» ,
«CJK RADICAL MEAT» or
«CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-6708»
- until more convenient names and glyphs for characters of set TsukiGatsu be established.

Recycle the glyph

Narrowed glyph of TsukiGatsu appears as part of glyphs of other, less ambiguous kanjis. Few examples are collected in this section.

脳

脳 // No // brain

腕

腕 // ude // arm ; see also «宛»

膝

膝 // hiza // knee

棚

Glyph 棚 (棚 X68DA) seems to be composed of
narrowed glyph "ki"(tree) (木 (木 6728) or ⽊ (⽊ X2F4A)) at left and
two narrowed glyphs of the TsukiGatsu set at right.

In Japanese and in Tarja, 棚 may mean tent, awning; booth; shed, Shelve(s) (Book Shelve(s))
In Japanese and in Tarja, 棚 can be pronounced as ホウ, hou⁠ or たな.
棚 may have also other meanings and pronunciations dependently on the context.

Warning

Publications about characters of the TsukiGatsu are collected and analyzed in TORI with scientific goals.

The analysis and the interpretation above should not be interpreted as an appeal for the extrajudicial execution of the font/unicode designers who did not supply some popular glyphs with unique unicode numbers.

The more civilized solution would be to convince them to develop some realistic default analogy of the fantastic Uniglif.

The escription suggested may require correction(s) by a native Japanese speaker.

References

Keywords

«[[]]», «CJK», «Confusion», «Japanese», «Kanji», «KanjiLiberal», «KanjiRadical», «Meat», «Month», «Moon», «Niku», «Tarja», «TsukiGatsu», «Unicode», «Uniglif», «X2F49» «⽉», «X2E9D» «⺝», «X2EBC» «⺼», «X6708» «月», «X68DA» «棚», «X8089» «肉»,