The title of KyoAni’s latest show, Tamako Market, seems like a straightforward affair. Tamako is the main character’s name and the market is an important part of the setting – no tricks there. But viewers with basic Japanese reading ability might notice something odd about the title (no, not the bird nested between the “ma” and “ke”). It is all written in hiragana, up to and including the obvious loanword maaketto (market), which you would expect to appear written in katakana.
Two seasons ago, we had Mankind has Declined replacing its kanji and katakana with hiragana to strengthen the fairy-tale feeling of the setting. But this is probably not what is going on here, though director Yamada did admit that at one point, Tamako Market was planned to include significant fantasy elements (with a prince from a mysterious land appearing and Tamako possessing a magical ability).
The Japanese writing system has a long history which affects how the different scripts are viewed. At the point when only kanji were used in Japan, the art of writing was accessible only to the upper classes. Similarly, the original use of katakana was for notes during study of Buddhist texts. Hiragana, on the other hand, was the script of the masses ever since its invention. For a long time, it would not appear in official documents but it would in poetry and fiction. Both men and women were expected to know it, and hiragana was the script of everyday life – short notes, diaries, shopping lists…
The kana syllabaries are an original Japanese creation, and hiragana was the most widely used of the two. This means that, to this day, hiragana is the script the Japanese feel most comfortable with. The Japanese also value hiragana characters for their soft, curvy shapes. Research shows that when presented with the same text written using different scripts (kanji, hiragana, katakana), Japanese readers tend to point to the text written in hiragana as ‘warmer, more pleasant’ than the other two. This might also have something to do with how hiragana brings to mind the sweet days of childhood.
So the non-standard hiragana usage in the title can be seen as part of setting the mood of the show – a promise of a heartwarming slice of life. That Tamako’s name is one composed entirely of hiragana characters is also surely no coincidence.
While Tamako Market is KyoAni’s original piece, the studio has already met with this phenomenon in works it adapted. Remember Lucky Star? The obviously English-inspired title ends up written not in katakana, as you would expect, but hiragana – らき☆すた. And K-On? Both kanji (軽音) and katakana (ケイオン) would be perfectly fine candidates for the writing of the title, but again we get hiragana instead – けいおん. The unexpected appearance of hiragana in those titles can certainly be linked to their identity as soothing slice of life shows.
On a side note, I see a mochi replacing one of the strokes in the “ta” in the title…
Yaranakya 
Splendid observation!
Thanks :).
Thanks for the lesson ~_^
Thank you for dropping in ;).
That’s an interesting observation. I never thought about how hiragana could be used in order to create a heartwarming or cozy atmosphere.
My favorite example of all hiragana usage is in Soseki’s Botchan. The hero’s former nanny sends him a long letter written entirely in hiragana, which took him a rather long time to decode!
Yes, combining hiragana-only script with no spacing between words is a disaster xD. There was a time when the constitution and other legal documents had to be made available in a katakana-only version so that ‘anybody could read them’ (back in the times when not everybody could read kanji and katakana was used more often than hiragana, short-lived as the idea was). But if you presented a text like that to the contemporary Japanese, they would have a difficult time reading that.
Interesting analysis about the choice of characters – I watched many KyoAni shows and never noticed the hiragana-warmth connection. This is all related to the singularity of the Japanese writing system as you mentioned… Do you think the Japanese will ever ditch kanji for a kana only orthography?
Ah, a million dollar question ;). I’d say they won’t, at least not anytime soon. The creation of the Jouyoukanjihyou (common use kanji list) was initially intended as the first step in abandoning kanji altogether. But no kanji ban came – to the contrary, every revision to the list expands it and makes more kanji considered to be in common use.
There are many reasons why the kanji persist – some of them cultural, others simply practical. Japanese has never had spacing between words, and that’s mostly thanks to kanji. And technical vocabulary riddled with homophones only works thanks to kanji, too.
Which is not to say that how the kanji are viewed will not change. Writing competence is universally dropping, and will continue to do so. Reading competence is a mixed bag with the number of kanji in use ever increasing, but also with many people unwilling or unable to keep up with the trend and falling behind. All of this is caused by the growing importance of technology (cellphones/computers) in everyday life and the decreasing importance of hand-written documents, a tendency which will only grow deeper in the years to come. It is not entirely impossible that there will be a breaking point at which handwritten kanji will disappear completely. But we’ll have to see which direction the changes go as years pass.
Thanks for commenting!
One word I used to describe to review the show, disappointing. Other than Tamako and Midori, I honestly did not care about anyone else on the show.
I think that ultimately, the show lacked focus both in terms of its plot and characters. Yamada hasn’t lost her touch, so each individual episode is still a great experience, but they don’t connect well enough to create a greater whole.
Exactly. Cuteness alone was not enough. Direction was also needed. Heck, for all the flack K-ON gets from its detractors, at least K-ON had direction!
K-On! brought Yui from a simple airhead to a highly-motivated airhead, which was perfectly fine character development. The second season fared well with the themes of senpai-kouhai relationships and the girls having to part after graduation, imo.
You are absolutely correct Mr Cytrus Cooler. I have nothing else to add for you understand why K-ON is awesome.
Glad we agree.
[…] phrase. This is a popular technique in slice-of-life titles, and I explained it in more detail in a Tamako Market post some time […]
Reblogged this on compass on my field trip.