After the dispatch of the Japanese envoy to Tang Dynasty China was ended in the end of the ninth century, the Japanization of the culture advanced, so "kana" (syllables peculiar to Japan) based on Chinese characters was created, and kana helped the spread of "waka" (a traditional Japanese poem of thirty-one syllables) and narrative literature exemplified by "Genji Monogatari" (The Tale of Genji).
遣唐使が中止された9世紀末以降、文化の和風化が進展し、漢字を元にして日本固有の文字である仮名が考案され、和歌や『源氏物語』に代表される物語文学が盛んになった。