“Correctness” and “flexibility” in Japanese writing systems

Many people probably wish to “use correct Japanese” or “be able to read and write Kanji correctly.” I also once thought that the rules for the language and kanji usage had been clearly defined for a long time and that I had to use them correctly.

However, when I began studying Japanese linguistics at university, I was surprised by the freedom of writing in documents from before the early modern period. For example, nowadays there are certain rules for writing kanji, using okurigana or kana characters, etc. In ancient times, however, kanji forms and kana usage would often vary, even within the same text by the same writer. Even the forms of hiragana and katakana were not standardized.
In fact, even today the Japanese writing system is not completely unified. Studying language and writing has made me realize that it is difficult to clearly distinguish between “correct usage” and “mistakes.”

Such flexibility of the Japanese writing system is truly fascinating, so even now I continue to explore the practice of character usage and people’s understanding of writing.