The Writing System (History)

•  Where did the Japanese adopt their writing system from?

China, in the year 400AD

• What did they call the Chinese writing system?

Kanji (from the Chinese Kan dynasty)

• Which Japanese people used Kanji?

Upper class educated men only because poor people were uneducated, and women were considered not smart enough to understand or memorise it.

• When did Hiragana get in the picture?

When women wanted to write they found Kanji characters confusing because they couldn't explain every expression in Japanese (this was a different language after all), so they developed a newer writing system derived from kanji that could express each Japanese sound.

• Why did the Japanese start using Hiragana?

Although many upper class men still used Kanji (TO SHOW OFF) they faced many difficulties when explaining things using only that, so they decided to use both.

• When did Katakana get into the picture?

Katakana was just a quick way to take notes (that's why some of them look similar to hiragana).

• What are each kana used for now?

Hiragana is used for Japanese words (and to read kanji), while katakana are used for borrowed or foriegn words and Kanji is still used mainly in Japanese text.

• What is Romaji?

It is a transliteration of Japanese words into the Roman alphabet so we (english speakers) can understand how things are pronounced and/or written.

Photo: Toshiro Mifune, 1962