Hentaigana - Hentai-gana

Among hiragana characters, those that are not commonly used today. Hiragana was established and developed after the 9th century, and there were various types of Man'yōgana, which was its parent. For example, to represent the sound "a," there were "a" (from "yasu"), "a," "aku," and others that were used interchangeably, but in 1900 (Meiji 33), the Enforcement Regulations of the Elementary School Act unified school education, and gradually the use of characters other than the standard ones came to be obsolete, and continues to do so to this day.

[Masayuki Tsukimoto]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

平仮名の字体のうち、現在普通には用いられないもの。9世紀以後成立、発達を遂げた平仮名には、その母胎となった万葉仮名に種々のものがあった。たとえば、アの音を表すものにも「あ」（安から）のほかに（阿）、（悪）などがあって併用されたが、1900年（明治33）の小学校令施行規則により学校教育での統一が行われ、標準の字体以外はしだいに使用されないようになり、現在に至っている。

［月本雅幸］

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