Introduction to Japanese Characters: Hiragana

The Japanese writing system is made up of three main scripts: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Among these, Hiragana and Katakana are known as kana, which are syllabic characters that represent distinct sounds. Mastering these two alphabets is essential for anyone beginning to learn Japanese, as they form the foundation of the language's written and spoken structure.

Hiragana - The Heart of Japanese Writing

The Origins of Hiragana

Hiragana (ひらがな) is one of the core components of the Japanese writing system and was developed as a simplified, cursive script derived from Chinese characters (kanji). During the Heian period (794-1185), educated Japanese people—especially women of the imperial court—adapted certain kanji characters to represent the sounds of the Japanese language more fluidly. These adaptations eventually evolved into what we now know as Hiragana. Because of its elegant, flowing style, it was sometimes referred to as "women's writing" (女手 / onnade), distinguishing it from the more formal kanji used by men in government and scholarly texts.

Hiragana's Role in the Japanese Language

Unlike Kanji, which are logographic and represent meaning, Hiragana is phonetic, with each character representing a single syllable. There are 46 basic Hiragana characters, and each corresponds to a specific sound (like か = "ka", す = "su", も = "mo"). Hiragana plays a vital grammatical role in Japanese. It is used for native words, inflections, and particles—the small but essential elements that indicate grammatical relationships in a sentence. For example, particles like は (wa), が (ga), and を (wo) are always written in Hiragana.

Hiragana in Modern Japanese

Today, Hiragana is the first script that Japanese children learn when they begin reading and writing. It is also widely used in educational materials, children's books, and language textbooks for foreign learners. Many beginner-level Japanese texts are written entirely in Hiragana or include furigana—Hiragana written above or beside Kanji to aid with pronunciation. Understanding Hiragana is a crucial step for any Japanese language learner, as it opens the door to reading, writing, and eventually mastering more complex aspects of the language, such as Katakana and Kanji.

Hiragana Characters

Below is a list of the basic Hiragana characters, along with their corresponding Romaji representations. As you will see, some characters have a consonant followed by one of the five main vowels (a, i, u, e, o). However, some of the consonants do not use all of the vowels. An example are the y and w consonants, which only have three and two respectively. The characters are grouped by their consonant sounds, with the vowels listed first. Each character is clickable, allowing you to hear its pronunciation.