ウェブJapanese writing. Hiragana ( 平仮名, ひらがな, IPA: [çiɾaɡaꜜna, çiɾaɡana (ꜜ)]) is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana as well as kanji . It is a phonetic lettering system. The word hiragana literally means "common" or "plain" kana (originally also "easy", as contrasted with ...