CJK compatibility ideograph FA5A

It preserves a Japanese form of 署; its reading depends on context.

In Japanese, 署 can name an office or post, an assigned division, or writing or signing. Lexical records place the office sense in 718, the writing or signature sense around 1120, and police-station shorthand in 1898.

The Japanese character standard JIS X 0213:2000 records 署 as a legacy variant kept for round-trip conversion. Accounts of 署's origin differ: one links 网, the net component, with dividing work into assignments; another places an early sense at a guarded gate post. Both tie later office meanings to a post with defined duties.

Why does 署 look like 署?

Normalization or fonts can erase or hide the glyph distinction.

Compatibility characters preserve distinctions required by legacy encodings; normalization can map 署 to 署, keeping the ordinary reading but losing the exact glyph.

Fonts and fallback can draw Han variants differently or omit the glyph; the screen alone cannot show whether the text was normalized.

Should I use 署 in ordinary text?

Use 署 for new prose; keep 署 when exact source form matters.

Use 署 in Japanese prose. Keep 署 when a source, name, or record requires the exact glyph, including JIS X 0213 data. It signals source fidelity, not a different meaning or tone.

If someone sees 署 or a blank box, explain that the source shape matters and clarify the word from context.