Postby thegooseking » May 19th, 2015 9:15 pm
Although this case is not an example of it, 'old' characters in Japanese are referred to as hentaigana.
The history of kana is quite interesting. In the Man'yoshu, a collection of ancient Japanese texts, kanji were used not for their meaning, but for their sound. Using kanji in this way was therefore called man'yogana. When monks were writing in man'yogana, they developed certain shorthands for each character, by removing strokes and simplifying the characters. This is where hiragana and katakana come from. However, there was no standardisation. Sometimes different kanji could be used for the same sound in man'yogana, and sometimes different monks came up with different shorthands for the same man'yogana character.
In 1900, kana were standardised, with an edict that there should be only one character for each sound in hiragana and katakana. This standardisation didn't quite bring us the modern kana we know - it took another standardisation in the 1940s for that - but it was the start of standard kana. Kana that were not included in the standard list were classified as hentaigana. Hentaigana are sometimes still used, e.g. in signage, but they're very much considered non-standard and have a bit of an "old-timey" feel.
小狼
