33 - Once again please look at the map.
This is Japan. After around an era, many people
came to Japan from North and South,I think.
But we can't find any characters of writing.
It's very interesting for me to find something
about characters in those times.
Now I'll tell you about the Chinese characters
called Kanji in Japan.
34 - This is the iron sword with many Kanji on it. It was discovered in the ancient
tomb in Saitama prefecture in Japan. It was made in 472 AD.
Japanese in those times used Chinese characters, Kanji for writing their own names
or their places.
Japanese in those times used Kanji in the late Han dynasty. Perhaps they didn't know
the Chinese characters before 200 BC.
Chinese characters, Kanji were used more and more in all over this country.
35 - These characters were written on a piece of wood. They were written in the 7th century.
People applied each pronounciation to each character. For example, [ha] to the character 「皮」,
[ru] to the character 「留」. We call these characters "Manyo-gana." This piece was discovered
in Osaka in 2006.
36 - This is a letter in Gyosho written by
a Manyo-poet in the year 750.
We can guess that noble persons wrote Kaisho,Gyosho
and perhaps Sosho at that time (late Nara era).
37 - In Tang dynasty (Nara and Heian era in Japan),
Japanese brought many buddhist Scriptures from China
to Japan.
The priests wrote the buddhist Scriptures in Kaisho.
38 - This is also a Buddhist Scripture in the year 740.
We can see Katakana beside Kanji in it.
Many Japanese believe that Katakana is a part of Kaisho.
39 - The noble men in Heian era, wrote their letters
in Sosho and Gyosho.
Please compare this letter with the letter written
by the manyo-poet.
40 - Kana is the most simplified Sosho style of Kanji.
A diary named TOSA NIKKI is very famous.
It was written in Kana style for the first time in 934.
In the middle of Heian era (about 1000 AD), people were able
to write Kana characters fast and beautifully.
We can see many poems in beautiful kana written by noble
women in Heian era.
41 - An unglazed plate made in 1200 was discovered in Kyoto in 1983.
It had Hiragana-characters on the backside.
IROHA-UTA which has 48 characters is a traditional song written
in the late Heian era. After that era, most of all Noble children
used to write IROHA in Hiragana and Katakana.