Japanese Kana Script

Timeline

1. c. 750–810Nara and Heian-kyō · JapanTexts such as the Man'yōshū used man'yōgana—Chinese characters for sound—while aristocratic and clerical writing remained primarily logographic, but the phonetic-reading system provided a stable syllabic basis for later kana.
2. c. 804–850Heian-kyō · KinkiAfter monks such as Kūkai and Saichō returned from Tang China, they promoted the copying of esoteric Buddhist texts and phonological organization; in court and temple scriptoria, cursive and simplified forms of Chinese characters gradually differentiated into the prototypes of katakana and hiragana, with aristocratic women especially active in writing.
3. c. 850–900Heian-kyō · KinkiTexts such as the Iroha poem reflect the stabilization of the fifty-sound ordering; the mixed kana-and-Chinese-character style became the standard form for waka, diaries, and monogatari writing, laying the written foundation for the literary flourishing of the Tale of Genji era.