In English, we often use alphabets for itemization, for example:

a) blah blah

b) blah blah

c) blah blah

…

z) blah blah

This style is often used in Japan as well. Alphabets are widely accepted and commonly used. However, we do not always use alphabets in listing up items. Fortunately, we have our own characters called Hiragana and Katakana. We also have Kanji characters, but they are rarely used for itemization today. In this article, therefore, I’d like to focus on itemization with Hiragana and Katakana.

On documents, papers or files, we can find Hiragana and Katakana characters used as headers for itemization. Usually, they are used in the order called “gojuuon jun 五十音順(ごじゅうおんじゅん)”* which starts with “a あ” and ends with “n ん”. Today, this order can be considered as a dictionary order and sometimes called “jishoshiki junjo 辞書式順序”**. These situations are basically the same as those for alphabets. They are elements of sounds and basically used in the dictionary order in listing up items. Anyhow, let me show you an itemization example with Hiragana characters:

あ）云々

い）云々

う）云々

…

ん）云々

Here, “un’nun 云々(うんぬん)” is more or less the same as “blah blah”. This style of itemization is often used and actually very helpful. The number of Hiragana characters is approximately 50, so we have sufficient headers for itemizing. The order which starts with “a あ” and ends with “n ん” is very systematic. Perhaps, even for those who don’t know Japanese languages, it looks well organized. In Japan, “gojuuon 五十音(ごじゅうおん)” is usually shown as a matrix made by the Japanese five vowels and all consonants. The matrix will be like followings:

vowels:     a  i  u  e  o

k-sounds: ka ki ku ke ko

s-sounds: sa shi su se so

…

w-sounds: wa – – – wo

As you can see, we have some exceptions, but basically, we can list up all Japanese sounds in a very systematic way. Again, the order following this matrix is widely used.

As shown in the above example, we can use Hiragana characters for itemization. And also Katakana characters can be used. So far, the role of these characters is nearly the same as that of alphabets. The difference between English and Japanese is that Japanese characters are not always used in the dictionary order. In Japanese, we have another order called “iroha jun いろは順(いろはじゅん)” which is much older than “gojuuon jun 五十音順(ごじゅうおんじゅん)”. Honestly, the reason why I talked about itemization is that I’d like to show you “iroha jun いろは順(いろはじゅん)”.

This order was named after the very famous poem, “iroha uta いろは歌(いろはうた)”. Interestingly, this poem was created by using every Japanese sound without any duplication. Japanese people had found the unicursal among their sounds 1000 years ago. Very surprising! The study on an unicursal among seven bridges in Koenigsberg is very famous among mathematicians and students majoring mathematics. However, that story took place several hundred years after Japanese one. I’m so impressed, to be honest. Anyway, let me show you this poem. First, it is written in alphabets.

i ro ha ni ho he to  chi ri nu ru wo

wa ka yo ta re so  tsu ne na ra mu

u wi no o ku ya ma  ke fu ko e te

a sa ki yu me mi shi  we i mo se su

And then in Hiragana:

いろはにほへと　ちりぬるを

わかよたれそ　　つねならむ

うゐのおくやま　けふこえて

あさきゆめみし　ゑいもせす

Finally, in Hiragana and Kanji:

色はにほへど　散りぬるを

我が世誰そ　　常ならむ

有為の奥山　　今日越えて

浅き夢見じ　　酔いもせず

Apparently, I’m still in the middle of itemization. The meaning of poem, how to use it for itemization and other remaining things shall be explained. However, the explanation for them will be very long, so I will explain them separately in the upcoming article.

*It is literally understood as  “fifty sounds order”. “Fifty sounds” usually mean all Japanese sounds.

**It literally means “dictionary order”.