experimentation in composing Japanese style writings. The cursive forms soon developed to a point where they were unintelligible as Chinese and were first employed mostly in private and informal writings. (Miller, 121) In the earliest records containing isolated and cursive the two were used regularly with no differentiated function. Slowly their usages diverged until isolated forms were predominately in the scripts along with religious and secular documents. Cursive kuntenbon forms gained importance primarily in Japanese style texts like informal letters, poems, or written stories. It was during the Heian period (794-1185 A.D.) that the various scripts gained kana importance. Being able to write elegantly was regarded as a reflection on the writer. (Seeley, 75) came to be used for aesthetic purposes in poetry and stories while the use of Hiragana katakana was more functionally based in court writing and scribal work. The more cursive style hiragana writings were referred to as or women’s hand, while the more square, isolated and onnade style writings were called or men’s graphs. This does not mean that only katakana otoko moji women used the style and men the Education in reading and writing started hiragana katakana. with the forms so that both men and women learned it. However women rarely went on onnade to learn and more formal Chinese style writing practices. (Miller, 121-124) otoko moji at first the scripts seem like a simplification of the characters, kana man’yōgana they remained pluralistic and added to the range of characters that could be used. Scribes and other writers were still using the original characters in addition to the new man’yōgana kana. The early syllable systems had not been standardized and there were often multiple characters for one syllable. This system suited the aesthetic tastes of the Heian period and, despite problems with multiple spellings and sign choices, remained popular among even the less educated. Unfortunately these problems were complicated further by a pronunciation shift in the language.
experimentation in composing Japanese style writings. The cursive forms soon developed to a point where they were unintelligible as Chinese and were first employed mostly in private and informal writings. (Miller, 121) In the earliest records containing isolated and cursive the two were used regularly with no differentiated function. Slowly their usages diverged until isolated forms were predominately in the kuntenbon scripts along with religious and secular documents. Cursive forms gained importance primarily in Japanese style texts like informal letters, poems, or written stories. It was during the Heian period (794-1185 A.D.) that the various kana scripts gained importance. Being able to write elegantly was regarded as a reflection on the writer. (Seeley, 75) Hiragana came to be used for aesthetic purposes in poetry and stories while the use of katakana was more functionally based in court writing and scribal work. The more cursive hiragana style writings were referred to as onnade or women’s hand, while the more square, isolated and katakana style writings were called otoko moji or men’s graphs. This does not mean that only women used the hiragana style and men the katakana. Education in reading and writing started with the onnade forms so that both men and women learned it. However women rarely went on to learn otoko moji and more formal Chinese style writing practices. (Miller, 121-124) at first the kana scripts seem like a simplification of the man’yōgana characters, they remained pluralistic and added to the range of characters that could be used. Scribes and other writers were still using the original man’yōgana characters in addition to the new kana. The early syllable systems had not been standardized and there were often multiple characters for one syllable. This system suited the aesthetic tastes of the Heian period and, despite problems with multiple spellings and sign choices, remained popular among even the less educated. Unfortunately these problems were complicated further by a pronunciation shift in the language.
jilson_thesis.docx