Change:  Katakana became phonetic shorthand based on Chinese characters (kanji).(kanji). It was used by students who, while listening to classic Buddhist lectures, would make notations on the pronunciations or meanings of unfamiliar characters, and sometimes wrote commentaries between the lines of certain passages.   View changes from previous version. (Word count: 42)

Change: Created by reikiwiki Jun 2 2008, 9:09 PM EDT for: no reason given