ScriptLookup

Hiragana

ひらがな
Hira Left-to-right Living Syllabary East Asian
Sample Text
こんにちは

Sample Characters

ぁ あ ぃ い ぅ う ぇ え ぉ お か が き ぎ く ぐ け げ こ ご さ ざ し じ す ず せ ぜ そ ぞ た だ ち ぢ っ つ づ て で と ど な に ぬ ね の は ば

First 48 characters from Hiragana (U+3041–U+309F)

About Hiragana

Hiragana (ひらがな) is one of the three Japanese writing systems, alongside Katakana and Kanji. It is a syllabary — each character represents a syllable (mora) rather than a single phoneme. Hiragana was derived in the 9th century CE from cursive forms of Chinese characters.

Hiragana has 46 basic characters and is used to write native Japanese words, grammatical elements (particles, verb endings), and words for which no kanji exists. In modern Japanese, hiragana, katakana, and kanji are used simultaneously in the same text.

Data sourced from the ISO 15924 registry, Unicode CLDR, and the Unicode Character Database.

Script Family & Lineage

Ancestor Chain
Han (Hanzi, Kanji, Hanja) › Hiragana

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of writing system is Hiragana?
Hiragana is a Syllabary. Syllabaries assign one symbol per syllable rather than per sound.
What direction does Hiragana read?
Hiragana is written Left-to-right, the same direction as most European scripts.
How many languages use the Hiragana script?
0 languages use Hiragana according to Unicode CLDR data.
When was the Hiragana script created?
The Hiragana script originated around 900 CE.
Does Hiragana have uppercase and lowercase letters?
Hiragana does not have separate uppercase and lowercase forms. Letters are written in a connected, cursive style. All vowels are written explicitly.

Compare Hiragana With Another Script

Direction, characters, languages — side by side.

Key Facts

ISO Code
Hira
ISO Number
410
Script Type
Syllabary
Direction
Left-to-right
Status
Living
Region
East Asian
Characters
381
Introduced
900 CE
Languages
0

Unicode Ranges

  • Hiragana
    U+3041–U+309F
  • U+1B001–U+1B11F
    U+1B001–U+1B11F
  • Small Kana Extension
    U+1B132–U+1B152
  • Enclosed Ideographic Supplement
    U+1F200–U+1F200

Script Properties

Has Case
No
Cursive
Yes
Vowels
full

Official Use In

JP

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