The ideographs used phonetically were not, however, always employed in the same way. The forty-seven sounds of the syllabary—

aiue (ye)o
kakikukeko
sashisuseso
tachitsuteto
naninuneno
hahif(h.w.)uheho
mamimumemo
yayuyo
rarirurero
wawiwewo

—were already recognized, and were represented by a sort of alphabet composed of several hundreds of Chinese ideographs, each pronounced exactly or approximately sinice—that is japonico-sinice, or according to on or Chinese sound. Thus a was represented by two ideographs, [阿] (a in Chinese) and [安] (an in Chinese), shi by twenty-five characters, such as [志] (chih in Chinese), [思] (ssu in Chinese), &c. The other sounds were represented by varying numbers of characters. According to this system, ame (heaven or rain) would or might be written [安米], tsuchi (soil) [都知] and so forth. A complete list of these Chinese phonetic ideographs is given in the Sôron (Introductory) volume of the Kogi.

A second method of using the ideographs was to employ them according to their kun (reading i.e. in pure Japanese), thus utate (extremely) was represented by [得田手], chihahi (for sachihafi, bless) by [千羽日]. Sometimes two characters represented one sound, thus [嗚呼] for a, [五十] (isozhi) for i, [牛鳴], ushi no naku, ‘moo’ of cow, for mu. Some sounds (ku, ri, ru, ro, wa) are not found thus symbolized, that is, japonicé. A curious double character is [石花] for se, another is [羊{蹄}] (hitsuzhi no ashi) for shi. A third and very confused script is exemplified in [還金] kaherikomu (return), where kaheri is kun and komu (kon) is on, and [知三] shirasamu (shall know), where shira is kun modified grammatically, and samu (san = three) is on representing the inflexion.

Still more confusingly, an ideograph may be used with an on (Chinese) sound resembling a kun (native) word, and the kun word may be employed, not in its natural sense, but as it were punningly, though more often no quibble is intended. Thus [兼] of which the on is ken, may be used for the verbal termination kemu, as in [茢兼] (karikemu, will have reaped), where [茢] is employed lexicographically as kemu, as just explained. So [不有君] does not mean kimi arazu (lord is not) but ari nakuni, as there is not. Similar examples are kaherikomu and shirasamu cited above. So [難] nan (difficult) for nani, what?, [{點}] ten for -temu; [徳] toku for toko, and so forth.

Or the Japanese reading of a character may be taken, but in a signification different from its true meaning, thus [庭] niha, a court or yard, for the particles ni ha, [玉] tama, jewel or pearl, for tamashii, soul, or even [湯龜] yu-game = water-tortoise for yukame = will go, or the combination [石二] = stone-two, which puzzled Shitagau so sorely, and finally turned out to mean made = until, to which may be added the commonest of all [鴨] = kamo, a wild duck, used for ka mo, an expression of mingled entreaty and doubt.

The above devices were no doubt resorted to partly to supply the place of a syllabary, partly for purposes of abbreviation, the full writing of long Japanese words with a Chinese character for each syllable being found too laborious.

But characters are often also used in a punning or humorous way. Thus [二二] = 2 × 2 are employed to represent the syllable shi (which means 4 in Japano-Chinese), but here is used phonetically to represent the emphatic particle shi or the syllable shi merely. So [山上復有山] = mountain [山] upon mountain to represent [出] idzuru, go forth, out, &c., [三伏一向衣] = three-prostrations-one-regard-night, i.e. a moonlight night (when one salutes the moon), [八十一] (81) as equivalent to ku ku, nine times nine, part of the word kukumeru (= fukumeru, hold in mouth, imply), and so forth. Characters used otherwise than to express their true meaning are called kariji, borrow-characters, i.e. characters borrowed to signify some other meaning than their own. Characters used in the orthodox manner are called manaji—true characters.

There are also guji, [具字] double characters used, where one would suffice, thus [何物] for [何] nani. This is probably a mere embellishment.

Contracted script is not uncommon; thus we find [山下] for [山下出風] = arashi, a violent wind (rushing down from the mountains).