Hiragana are kanji in disguise: where あ い う か came from

Every hiragana began as a kanji. あ is 安 written fast with a brush, い is 以, う is 宇 and か is 加. Writers borrowed these kanji for their sounds, not their meanings, and centuries of quick, flowing handwriting wore them down into the simple shapes that Japanese children learn first. Katakana came from kanji too: カ is the left half of 加.

What the kanji say

安 (an) means peaceful or safe, and also cheap: 安心 (anshin) is peace of mind, and 安い (yasui) is cheap. It’s 宀, a roof, over 女, a woman. Brush it fast enough and the roof and the woman run together into あ.

以 (i) turns up mostly in words that set a limit: 以上 (ijou), “or more”, 以下 (ika), “or less”, and 以外 (igai), “except”. Its flowing form became い.

宇 (u) can mean the eaves of a roof, but today you’ll mostly see it in 宇宙 (uchuu), the universe. Both hiragana う and katakana ウ come from it.

加 (ka) means to add: 加える (kuwaeru) is to add, and 参加 (sanka) is taking part. It’s 力, strength, next to 口, a mouth. Written whole and fast, it became hiragana か. Katakana took only the left half, 力, and that became カ.

Where it really comes from

Before kana, Japanese had no writing of its own, so people borrowed Chinese characters to spell out Japanese sounds, a practice that began in the 5th century. Kanji used this way are called 万葉仮名 (man’yougana), after the Man’yoshu, an 8th-century collection of poems written with them. In man’yougana, 安 didn’t mean “peaceful”. It just meant the sound a.

Hiragana grew out of the cursive, “grass” style of writing these kanji, 草書 (sousho), from around 800 onwards, in the Heian period. It first became popular among women, and one old name for it is 女手 (onnade), “women’s hand”.

Katakana took a different route. In the 9th century, Buddhist monks reading Chinese texts needed a shorthand for writing Japanese sounds, so they wrote just a piece of each kanji. カ is the left half of 加, ア is the left side of 阿 and イ is the left side of 伊.

That’s why a hiragana and the katakana for the same sound don’t always share a kanji. う and ウ both come from 宇, and か and カ both come from 加, but あ comes from 安 while ア comes from 阿, and い comes from 以 while イ comes from 伊.

For a long time each sound had several hiragana, often made from different kanji. In 1900 the system was simplified to one hiragana per sound, and the leftovers are now called 変体仮名 (hentaigana), variant kana.

The kanji today

The kanji behind あ, い, う and か are still everyday kanji, with their own meanings and readings.

• この店は安いです。

  Kono mise wa yasui desu.

  This shop is cheap.

• 三人以上で予約できます。

  Sannin ijou de yoyaku dekimasu.

  You can book for three or more people.

• 宇宙に行ってみたい。

  Uchuu ni itte mitai.

  I'd love to go to space.

• 砂糖を少し加えてください。

  Satou o sukoshi kuwaete kudasai.

  Add a little sugar, please.

• 以上 includes the number. 三人以上 (sannin ijou) is three people or more, and 三人以下 (sannin ika) is three or fewer. Said at the end of a speech or a list, 以上 means “that’s all”.
• The kana carry only the sound. 安 means cheap, but あ means nothing on its own: it’s just a.
• 安 and 宇 share the roof radical, 宀, which sits on top of many kanji about houses and shelter.

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

あ hides 安, い hides 以, う hides 宇 and か hides 加. Katakana kept even less: カ is just the left half of 加, the 力 without its mouth.

The kanji in this lesson

Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.

Draw it

Draw it

Draw it

Draw it

Sources

• Wikipedia: Hiragana
• Wikipedia: Katakana
• Wikipedia: Ka (kana)

Written by the Sumi team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict and KANJIDIC2. How we write lessons. Spotted a mistake? Email brightsmilesolutionssupport@gmail.com.