Although hiragana (Japanese syllabary characters) had been believed for long to be used only by female, male also used hiragana in writing informal sentences like waka (a traditional Japanese poem of thirty-one syllables), which are shown in "Kokin Wakashu" (A Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poetry), the first Chokusenshu (anthology of poems compiled by Imperial command) in Japan, written in hiragana-mingled style.
平仮名の使用は長い間女性に限定されていたと言われてきたが、実際には和歌を中心として男性が非公式の場において平仮名を用いる事もあり、日本最初の勅撰和歌集『古今和歌集』も平仮名交じりの文体が採用されている。