Japanese character

Japanese language has 3 kind of characters

1) Kanji (漢字)

　Original Kanji was established in China about 3000 years ago.

    It was "imported" to Japn around  AD 0-300 years (1700-2000 years ago).

    Japanese people modified original Kanji and made Japanese Kanji.

    Each character has meaning and pronunciation is not single sound.

心 愛 赤 海 新 単 木 腹 言 

2) Hiragana (ひらがな)

　For pronunciation purpose, Hiragana was made from Kanji.

    See this page title. You can see base Kanji and Hiragana.

  Each character has no meaning and pronunciation is single sound.

あいうえおかきくけこさしすせそ

3) Katakana (カタカナ)

　For pronunciation purpose and easy to write, Katakana was made from part of Kanji.

   For examle, base Kanji is 利→Katakana リ. (Right side part of Kanji)

  Each character has no meaning and pronunciation is single sound.

アイウエオカキクケコサシスセソ