After the introduction of kanji (Chinese characters), it was used for writing, while hiragana (Japanese syllabary characters) and katakana (another Japanese syllabary), which are two sets of phonograms based on kanji, were established later.
漢字の伝来後はこれを表記に用い、後に、漢字を元にした表音文字の一種である平仮名、片仮名が成立。