葛

It is a phono-semantic compound, consisting of:

艸 (cho, “grass, plant radical”) as the semantic element;

曷 (gal, “how, why”) as the phonetic element.

갈근 (葛根) – kudzu root (used in traditional medicine)

갈분 (葛粉) – kudzu starch

등갈 (藤葛) – vines and kudzu (general climbing plants)

In Korea, the standard form is with 曷 intact.

In Japan, the same standard form is used. Characters with 曷 often have a simplified variant where the lower part 亾 is written as 匕 (dagger). However, 葛 was only officially added to the Jōyō Kanji list in 2010, so no official simplified form exists. Instead, writing with 匕 at the bottom is tolerated as an alternate form but not formalized.

This explains why some Japanese place names differ:

葛飾区 (Katsushika-ku) insists on the standard form.

葛城市 (Katsuragi-shi) accepts the tolerated alternate form.

Etymology note:

The English word kudzu comes from the Japanese kun’yomi reading of 葛 (くず, kuzu).