Katakana
Katakana is an angular Japanese kana script used for loanwords, names, technical terms, sound symbolism, transcription, and emphasis.
Japanese Writing
Hiragana
Hiragana is a cursive Japanese kana script used for grammatical endings, particles, readings, and many words written phonetically.
Kanji
Kanji are Chinese-derived characters adapted to write Japanese words and morphemes through context-dependent meanings, readings, and combinations.
Japanese Writing System
The Japanese writing system combines kanji, hiragana, katakana, and supporting symbols in a historically layered mixed-script orthography.
Man’yōgana
Man’yōgana is the historical use of Chinese characters for their sounds to record Japanese before hiragana and katakana developed.