The 46 hiragana
The hiragana are one of the Japanese syllabaries, or set of symbols representing syllables. Once considered a women's script, these graceful, flowing characters have become the main way of writing Japanese while avoiding kanji. Children are even taught their hiragana first, then katakana, then eased into the 1,945 "basic" kanji in elementary.
The hiragana, like most kanji, are rounded, flowing, and "smooth", unlike the blocky katakana. They are used for most writing in Japanese that is not done in kanji.
The following table displays all of the hiragana, sorted by syllable in the customary Japanese ordering.
