CJK Compatibility Ideograph FA19

神 is the old form of 神 in Japanese writing. Read it as 神; the sentence determines the reading. Its left component, 示, is written in full here, while modern Japanese 神 uses a compact form.

The combined form made from the written parts 示 and 申 appears on Western Zhou bronzes; the late-Shang oracle-bone corpus has no attested 神. Early uses concerned divine messages, deities, and ancestors. In the Warring States period, the meaning broadened to deity in general. Japan's 1949 script reform established 神 as the everyday form, while 神 remained in older print and preserved text.

Why does 神 turn into 神?

Normalization can turn 神 into 神. If someone sends 神 alone, read it as 神. In Japanese, it usually points to old-style typography or text preserved from an older source; it adds no separate religious meaning.

Unicode encoded 神 for round-trip compatibility with Japanese standards and vendor character sets. Compatibility normalization can merge it with 神. In 2003, a Unicode discussion documented two CP932 mappings for 神 and no standard EUC-JP encoding; conversion could replace or lose the distinction.