Iroha

The Iroha (いろは) is a Japanese poem. Originally the poem was attributed to the founder of the Shingon
Esoteric sect of Buddhism in Japan, Kūkai, but more modern research has found the date of composition to
be later in the Heian period (794–1179).[1] The first record of its existence dates from 1079. It is famous
because it is a perfect pangram, containing each character of the Japanese syllabary exactly once. Because of
this, it is also used as an ordering for the syllabary, in the same way as the A, B, C, D... sequence of the Latin
alphabet.

Contents
Text
Usage
Current uses
Origin
See also
Other languages
Notes
References

Text
The first appearance of the Iroha, in Konkōmyōsaishōōkyō Ongi ( 金 光 明 最 勝 王 経 音 義 , 'Readings of
Golden Light Sutra') was in seven lines: six with seven morae each, and one with five. It was also written in
man'yōgana.

以呂波耳本部止
千利奴流乎和加
餘多連曽津祢那
良牟有為能於久
耶万計不己衣天
阿佐伎喩女美之
恵比毛勢須

Structurally, however, the poem follows the standard 7–5 pattern of Japanese poetry (with one hypermetric
line), and in modern times it is generally written that way, in contexts where line breaks are used. The text of
the poem in hiragana (with archaic ゐ and ゑ but without voiced consonant marks) is:
 Ordering
Archaic Modern Translation
(see usage)
kanji and
hiragana transliteration pronunciation numbers
hiragana

いろはに Even the blossoming flowers [Colors

Iro ha nihoheto 色は匂えど Iro wa nioedo 1–7
ほへと are fragrant, but they]

ちりぬる
Chirinuru wo 散りぬるを Chirinuru o 8–12 Will eventually scatter
を

わかよた Wa ka yo tare Wa ga yo tare

我が世誰ぞ 13–18 Who in our world
れそ so zo

つねなら
Tsune naramu 常ならん Tsune naran 19–23 Is unchanging?
む

うゐのお Uwi no
有為の奥山 Ui no okuyama 24–30 The deep mountains of karma—
くやま okuyama

けふこえ
Kefu koete 今日越えて Kyō koete 31–35 We cross them today
て

あさきゆ Asaki yume Asaki yume And we shall not have superficial
浅き夢見じ 36–42
めみし mishi miji dreams

ゑひもせ
Wehi mo sesu 酔いもせず Ei mo sezu 43–47 Nor be deluded.
す

Note that archaic hiragana uses ゐ and ゑ, which are now only used in proper names and certain Okinawan
orthographies. Modern writing uses voiced consonant marks (with dakuten). This is used as an indicator of
sound changes in the spoken Japanese language in the Heian era.

An English translation by Professor Ryuichi Abe[2] reads as:

Although its scent still lingers on

the form of a flower has scattered away
For whom will the glory
of this world remain unchanged?
Arriving today at the yonder side
of the deep mountains of evanescent existence
We shall never allow ourselves to drift away
intoxicated, in the world of shallow dreams.

Komatsu Hideo has revealed that the last syllable of each line of the Man'yō-gana original (止加那久天之
須), when put together, reveals a hidden sentence, toka [=toga] nakute shisu (咎無くて死す), which means
"die without wrong-doing". It is thought that this might be eulogy in praise of Kūkai, further supporting the
notion that the Iroha was written after Kūkai's death.[2]

Usage
The iroha contains every kana only once, with the exception of ん (-n), which was not distinguished from む
mu in writing until the early 20th century (see Japanese script reform). For this reason, the poem was
frequently used as an ordering of the kana until the Meiji era reforms in the 19th century. Around 1890, with
the publication of the Wakun no Shiori ( 和 訓 栞 ) and Genkai ( 言 海 ) dictionaries, the gojūon ( 五 十 音 ,
literally "fifty sounds") ordering system, which is based on Sanskrit, became more common. It begins with
a, i, u, e, o then ka, ki, ku... and so on for each kana used in Japanese. Although the earliest known copy of
the gojūon predated the iroha, gojūon was considered too scholarly and had not been widely used.

Even after widespread use of gojūon in education and dictionaries, the iroha sequence was commonly used
as a system of showing order, just like a, b, c... in English.

For example, Imperial Japanese Navy submarines during the Second World War had official designations
beginning with I (displacement 1,000 tonnes or more), Ro (500 to 999 tonnes), and Ha (less than 500
tonnes). Also, Japanese tanks had official designations partly using iroha, such as Chi-ha (ha meaning the
third model). Other examples include subsection ordering in documents, seat numbering in theaters, and
showing go moves in diagrams (kifu).

Current uses

The iroha sequence is still used today in many areas with long traditions.

Most notably, Japanese laws and regulations officially use iroha for lower-level subsection ordering
purposes, for example 第四十九条第二項第一号ロ (Article 49, Section 2, Subsection 1-ro). In official
translation to English, i, ro, ha... are replaced by a, b, c... as in 49(2)(i)(b).

In music, the notes of an octave are named i ro ha ni ho he to, written in katakana.

Musical notes
English A B C D E F G

Japanese イ (i) ロ (ro) ハ (ha) ニ (ni) ホ (ho) ヘ (he) ト (to)

Iroha is also used in numbering the classes of the conventional train cars of Japanese National Railways
(now known as JR). I is first class (no longer used), Ro is second class (now "Green car") and Ha is third
class (standard carriages).

Some Japanese expressions need knowledge of iroha to understand. The word iroha ( イ ロ ハ , often in
katakana) itself can mean "the basics" in Japanese, comparable to the term "the ABCs" in English. Similarly,
iroha no i (イロハのイ) means "the most basic element of all". I no ichiban (いの一番, "number one of i")
means "the very first".

Iroha karuta, a traditional card game, is still sold as an educational toy.

Irohazaka ( い ろ は 坂 ), a one-way switchback mountain road at Nikkō, Tochigi, is named for the poem
because it has 48 corners. The route was popular with Buddhist pilgrims on their way to Lake Chūzenji,
which is at the top of the forested hill that this road climbs. While the narrow road has been modernized
over the years, care has been taken to keep the number of curves constant.

Iroha was used to replace certain images in a bonus mini-game inside of the 1994 game Sonic & Knuckles
during development. The images can still be found in the game's files in the final release[3]

Origin
Authorship is traditionally ascribed to the Heian era Japanese Buddhist priest and scholar Kūkai ( 空 海 )
(774–835). However, this is unlikely as it is believed that in his time there were separate e sounds in the a
and ya columns of the kana table. The え (e) above would have been pronounced ye, making the pangram
incomplete.[4]

It is said that the iroha is a transformation of these verses in the Nirvana Sutra:

諸行無常
是生滅法
生滅滅已
寂滅為楽

which translates into

All acts are impermanent

That's the law of creation and destruction.
When all creation and destruction are extinguished
That ultimate stillness (nirvana) is true bliss.

The above in Japanese is read

Shogyō mujō
Zeshō meppō
Shōmetsu metsui
Jakumetsu iraku

See also
Ametsuchi No Uta (an earlier pangram)
Japanese literature

Other languages
Alphabet song
Shiva Sutra, Sanskrit poem with similar function
Hanacaraka, the traditional arrangement of the letters of the Javanese alphabet
Thousand Character Classic, Chinese poem with similar function, especially used in Korea

Notes
1. Abe (1999), pp. 392, 398
2. Abe (1999), p. 398
3. https://tcrf.net/Sonic_%26_Knuckles#Hidden_Message_in_Slot_Machine_Bonus
4. Abe (1999), p. 392

References
 Abe, Ryuichi (1999). The Weaving of Mantra: Kûkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist
Discourse. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11286-6.

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