In order to write faster, use fewer written characters, and read more easily, Japanese writers created simpler kana, or written characters to represent Japanese syllables. Buddhist monks created katakana by only using pieces of kanji so that they could write down spoken teachings more quickly. Upper-class women would use the kanji they knew and wrote cursive forms of these kanji. These became known as hiragana. While they were created separately, they later replaced man'yōgana as the main sound-based writing systems. While most sound-based writing today uses hiragana and katakana, man'yōgana is still used to write some modern Japanese words. 