Japanese Writing: The Birth of Kana in the Heian Period

After the Nara period came the Heian period (794-1185), famous for being the era which birthed Japanese literary classics such as The Tale of Genji, The Pillow Book, and The Tales of Ise. Whereas the language of the Nara period can be exemplified by the poetry found in the Manyōshū, it can be argued that the Heian period is the era of language used by the elites.

But before heading directly into the Heian period, it is important to dissect how Japanese was being written aside from manyōgana, introduced in the previous article. The concept of writing in Chinese is called “kanbun” (漢文; literally “Chinese writing”) in Japanese. Kanbun has nothing to do with Japanese. It consists of writing using kanji following a purely Chinese grammatical structure and order. However, as mentioned in the previous article, by the Nara period, kanji was now being used by Japanese speakers for their meaning, not just their sounds.

This is the second piece on Unseen Japan’s history of Japanese writing.

Part 1: Origins to Nara Era

Chinese-Style Japanese

This concept of using Chinese characters to write Japanese (sticking to Japanese grammar and word order) has a number of nomenclatures. Yoshinori Yamaguchi calls this kanshiki-wabun (漢式和文), or “Chinese-style Japanese writing.” To reiterate, this is because, although it uses Chinese characters, it is clearly Japanese and not Chinese. It is further distanced from Chinese by the fact that there are writings in kanshiki-wabun that also contain honorific language not present in Chinese. Regarding its usage, what differentiates it from manyōgana is the fact that the kanji do not represent sounds but meaning.

Unfortunately, as mentioned in the previous article, as the Japanese took the Chinese reading as well as keeping the Japanese reading for words, it is not always possible to know how each word was supposed to be pronounced during the time it was written.

Although not every trace of written kanshiki-wabun remains, a number of writings have been found dating before the Taika Reforms of 645. The Taika Reforms were a set of doctrines established by Emperor Kōtoku and the majority of writings after these reforms were all written in kanshiki-wabun. This marked movement towards a heavy use of kanshiki-wabun shows the growing importance for written language in the contemporary Japanese society especially as it shifted towards the Heian period.

Many writings in kanshiki-wabun which have been left behind were diaries written by noble men such as Fujiwara no Michinaga. These diaries provide a fascinating insight into the daily life of these men – how the weather was, the rituals on that day, who they met, etc.

Did People Write in Kanbun?

Moving from kanshiki-wabun to regular kanbun begs the question: did Japanese people write in pure Chinese?

Just as French was used in the courts of medieval England, so was kanbun used by the elites of Japanese society. The knowledge required to write classical Chinese was reserved for those of high social status and was deemed fitting to be used to record many historical records including the Shoku Nihongi, Nihon Kōki, and Sandai Jitsuroku. Many nobles even wrote poetry in kanbun.

But how did Japanese people read kanbun, when it was essentially Chinese, written with a completely different grammar?

The solution that the contemporary Japanese people devised was a form of translation called “kundoku” (訓読). This system was rather unique in that it didn’t allow a Japanese speaker to understand Chinese,. Rather, it let them deconstruct Chinese into Japanese without having to rewrite it all.

Although kanbun had been present in Japanese society for a long time now, by the Heian period people had begun to write certain markers on the Chinese text called kaeriten (返り点) which would indicate to the reader how to read the text. Numbers were used to indicate a rearranged word order; a small レ would indicate characters needed to be flipped around to be read in Japanese; even grammatical elements like prepositions or conjugational suffixes were written into the text to allow a Japanese-speaker to comprehend it.

As time went on, the Japanese began to write in manyōgana next to any characters they did not know how to read so that the reader knew how the word was pronounced. However, there was not much space to add in a lot of extraneous information. Manyōgana were complicated Chinese characters, after all.

In order to combat this, the Japanese decided to codify certain aspects of the kundoku system. Where certain common grammatical points or vocabulary came up, they would use a simple code to indicate this. For example, adding a ・ to the top right of a kanji to indicate the particle wo (を); when ・ was to the right and slightly above the middle of a kanji, it would indicate koto (こと); when ・ was to the right and slightly below the middle of a kanji, it would indicate the particle to (と); and when ・ was to the bottom right of a kanji it would indicate the particle wa (は). This Heian method were dubbed wo-ko-to marks (ヲコト点). Finally, a ・ between two kanji indicated a comma or period.

The Birth of Katakana

Although wo-ko-to marks were useful, they were still an imperfect method. One reason was that the complicated manyōgana still took up too much space. So, what about simplifying these characters by taking one part of them? For example, the manyōgana for the sound “i” was 伊, but what about just taking the left side, イ? And for the sound “re”? How about taking the manyōgana 礼 and just taking the right side, レ?

Due to being only a part of manyōgana, these were dubbed “incomplete characters”, or 片仮名 – katakana. As mentioned before, many different manyōgana were used for each katakana. These were eventually codified into the katakana we use today. The chart below shows us that the number of pronounced sounds had dwindled from the Nara period to the 47 sounds in the Heian period. (For the curious, the katakana ン (n) is not from a kanji, but from the kundoku code ˅.)

Text Written in a Mix of Katakana and Kanji

It didn’t stop there however. Soon, people began to put katakana in between kanji in order to indicate inflections on verbs, adjectives, etc. This system of using both kanji and katakana is the predecessor of the modern way in which we write Japanese today. This method of using kanji and katakana together to write can be first seen in the mid-Heian period, but it is by the end of the period where it comes fully into use. The Konjaku Monogatarishū exemplifies this.

This idea to use characters to aid pronunciation of certain grammatical functions can perhaps find inspiration in a style of writing called senmyōtai (宣命体). This style was used chiefly in the Nara period during announcements of declarations made by the emperor. Senmyōtai were written in kanshiki-wabun style, but still contained pronunciation guides so that a spoken text could be pronounced correctly. This probably had an influence on those who decided to add in katakana to texts. As time went on, katakana would grow in size from small guider characters to the same size as kanji and eventually be replaced by hiragana.

What About Hiragana?

So far we have covered two of the three writing systems used in Japanese. We had kanji, directly imported from China, and katakana, derived from these same kanji when used as manyōgana. However, manyōgana also was the progenitor of not only katakana, but hiragana too – albeit via a different route.

As previously mentioned, manyōgana was used to write sounds. Writing everything in the complicated manyōgana was a laborious process. However, if one were to write certain characters in sōshotai (草書体; cursive style), then this would significantly cut down the time required to write them. And if one were to further break down these cursive style characters, sōtaigana (草体仮名), then one would have to acknowledge them as new characters in themselves – hiragana.

However, in these texts, not all kanji were broken down into hiragana. Doing so would create its own unique problems. Nouns and other words that would be difficult to understand if they were written in hiragana were kept as kanji, and this was another originator of the Japanese kanji and kana mixed writing style.

Hiragana too had multiple variations that were codified, like katakana, in the year 1900, in the Meiji period. The ones that are now not recognized as hiragana, are called “hentaigana” (変体仮名). Although both katakana and hiragana find their origins in manyōgana, the way they came about is different. Whereas katakana were treated as functions, and so only a part was taken from them, hiragana were a rounded down, simplified version of the entire character. This is the reason why hiragana appears much smoother and rounder compared to katakana. A good example is the kanji 加. Katakana takes only the left side, カ, whereas the hiragana transforms the right side into the stroke seen on the right of か.

【書動画】ひらがなの成り立ち「あいうえお」（by.鈴木 曉昇）

「ひらがなは、日本の誇れる文化」と語る気鋭の書道家・鈴木曉昇氏が、その成り立ちを表現する「書動画」。 ひらがなの元になった漢字を「字源」と言い、「あいうえお」の字源は「安以宇衣於」となります。 漢字が日本の「かな」になる変遷を、美しい筆致でお楽しみください。 ■ひらがなの成り立ちとは？ ひらがなの元になったのは、奈良時代を中心に使われていた借字（しゃくじ）※と呼ばれるものです。 …

Katakana For Men, Hiragana For Women?

Hiragana was often called onna-de (女手; lit. woman hand), viewed as writing for women, and kanji was seen as a man’s writing style. Although there is no real intellectual difference in these writing systems, it exemplifies the societal prejudices of the time. It is true that most women wrote less kanji than men at this time. But this is because women were not allowed into certain spheres containing men and were not permitted the education to learn kanji and Chinese culture. Women could only read texts written in kanbun in private. Even Murasaki Shikibu was derisively labelled as “the Nihongi’s lady-in-waiting” (日本紀の局) after people found out she had read the kanbun-written Nihon-shoki (日本書紀). (She actively disliked this nickname.) This division was an issue of society. Not only this, men also did use hiragana. When they wrote letters to women, for example, it made sense for them to use hiragana.

紫式部日記『日本紀の御局』現代語訳（１）

「黒＝原文」・「青＝現代語訳」 解説・品詞分解はこちら紫式部日記『日本紀の御局』解説・品詞分解（１） 左衛門(さいも)の内侍といふ人侍(はべ)り。 左衛門の内侍というひとがおります。

Hiragana emerged from women’s education in poetry. Men were allowed to study kanbun and thus had exposure to katakana and kanji. Thus, these writing systems are a fascinating insight into Heian period society.

Aside from poetry, hiragana was used elsewhere in Heian society. With the birth of hiragana, an easier writing system compared to manyōgana, people began writing much longer texts unrelated to court affairs, such as diaries and stories. This meant the vernacular was finally used in writing. One of the first attempts at writing down spoken stories was The Tales of Ise. Because hiragana was a syllabic writing system, it managed to capture a spoken style that would be impossible with kanbun, kanshiki-wabun, or even the kanji and katakana styles.

Conclusion

The Heian period was an important time for Japanese writing in arguably a more practical way than any period to follow. It produced the emblematic writing forms of Japanese – katakana and hiragana – and with it allowed more literature to flourish as well as capturing the spoken style of Japanese in written form. The next article will jump to the Edo period where Japanese makes a large leap closer to its modern-day form.

Sources

Yamaguchi, Nakami, Nihongo no rekishi, 29th edn., (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 2019)

国宝 真福寺本古事記原文 (n.d.) Retrieved from  https://archive.is/20120724052814/http://www.anglo-norman.net/sitedocs/main-intro.html#selection-307.1-307.239

仮名の書とは (n.d.) Retrieved from http://sokyo.ptu.jp/kananosyotowaMENU.htm

National Institute of Japanese Literature (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.nijl.ac.jp/koten/kuzushiji/post.html

YouTube: 【書動画】ひらがなの成り立ち「あいうえお」（by.鈴木 曉昇） (n.d.) Retrieved from https://youtu.be/9hNcG4QTBDo

フロンティア古典教室 (n.d.) Retrieved from https://frkoten.jp/2016/04/25/post-1171/