Category hiragana

Category history

Origin of hiragana

The earliest written form of Japanese was phonetic, but based on kanji used for their pronunciation rather than meaning. This system is known as man'yōgana. Kana characters were invented as a simplification of this complicated system.

Each katakana and hiragana character is a simplification of a man'yōgana kanji.The hiragana were based on a highly stylized form of the character using sōsho calligraphy. Katakana (片仮名, fragment or partial kana), were based on parts of the kanji.

Here is a table of the parent kanji of each kana. Some sources differ somewhat from this. These tables are in the gojūon order, using the tategaki writing style.

Origin of hiragana table

ん	わ	ら	や	ま	は	な	た	さ	か	あ
毛/无	和	良	也	末	波	奈	太	左	加	安
	ゐ	り		み	ひ	に	ち	し	き	い
	為	利		美	仁	比	知	之	幾	以
		る	ゆ	む	ふ	ぬ	つ	す	く	う
		留	由	武	不	奴	州 ?	寸	久	宇
	ゑ	れ		め	へ	ね	て	せ	け	え
	恵	礼		女	部	祢	天	世	計	衣
	を	ろ	よ	も	ほ	の	と	そ	こ	お
	遠	呂	与	毛	保	乃	止	會	己	於