Kana are syllabic Japanese scripts, a part of the Japanese writing system contrasted with the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji (漢字). There are three kana scripts: modern cursive hiragana (ひらがな), modern angular katakana (カタカナ), and the old syllabic use of kanji known as man’yōgana (万葉仮名) that was ancestral to both. Hentaigana (変体仮名, "variant kana") are historical variants of modern standard hiragana. (From Chinese Character) 8 c. CE. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kana Japanese Phrases, Japanese Words, Chinese Language, Japanese Language, Era Heian, Hiragana Y Katakana, Japanese Handwriting, Phonetic Alphabet, Script Alphabet