U+1B02D "𛀭" Hentaigana Letter Ku-3 Unicode Character

U+1B02D "𛀭" Hentaigana Letter Ku-3 is a historical variant form of the modern Japanese hiragana character "く" (ku), belonging to the set of hentaigana, or "variant kana," that were widely used in Japan before the standardisation of the hiragana syllabary in the early 20th century. This specific shape, Ku-3, represents one of several distinct calligraphic styles derived from the cursive writing of the Chinese character "久," which was used phonetically to represent the syllable "ku" in classical Japanese texts. Found in manuscripts and printed materials from the Edo period and earlier, this character is now encoded in the Unicode standard to support digital preservation and scholarly study of historical Japanese writing, offering a glimpse into the rich diversity of premodern orthography.