Retrieving "Kana" from the archives

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1. Mixed Systems

   Linked via "Kana"

   A significant category of mixed systems involves scripts where the majority of characters represent morphemes or words (logograms), but a substantial subset functions syllabically, primarily for phonetic complements, grammatical affixes, or representing unbound morphemes.
   For instance, Classical Chinese often employs characters based on semantic and phonetic compounds (the Six Writings principle). However, when used in Japanese as Kanji alongside native phonetic scripts like Kana, the system becomes inh…

2. Murasaki Shikibu

   Linked via "Kana"

   The name "Murasaki Shikibu" is an honorific appellation. "Murasaki" likely derives from the name of a character within her masterpiece, or possibly refers to the purple flower of the fujibakama plant, which was associated with deep, internalized sorrow, a common theme in courtly poetry. "Shikibu" refers to the Bureau of Rites (Shikibu-shō), the government department where her father, Fujiwara no Tametoki, served. This title suggests her clerical association, though she was never an official bureau member, existing instead in the domestic sphere of the cou…