Iroha

The Iroha (いろは) is a Japanese poem, probably written in the Heian era (794–1179). 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.^[1] The first record of its existence dates from 1079. It is famous because it is simultaneously a perfect pangram and isogram, 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.

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 hypometric 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:

Archaic		Modern		Ordering (see usage)	Translation
hiragana	transliteration	kanji and hiragana	pronunciation	numbers
いろはにほへと	Iro ha nihoheto	色は匂へど	Iro wa nioedo	1–7	Even the blossoming flowers [Colors are fragrant, but they]
ちりぬるを	Chirinuru wo	散りぬるを	Chirinuru o	8–12	Will eventually scatter
わかよたれそ	Wa ka yo tare so	我が世誰ぞ	Wa ga yo dare zo	13–18	Who in our world
つねならむ	Tsune naramu	常ならん	Tsune naran	19–23	Is unchanging?
うゐのおくやま	Uwi no okuyama	有為の奥山	Ui no okuyama	24–30	The deep mountains of karma—
けふこえて	Kefu koete	今日越えて	Kyō koete	31–35	We cross them today
あさきゆめみし	Asaki yume mishi	浅き夢見じ	Asaki yume miji	36–42	And we shall not have superficial dreams
ゑひもせす	Wehi mo sesu	酔ひもせず	Yoi mo sezu	43–47	Nor be deluded.

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. 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, like 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 located at Nikko, Tochigi is named after the poem due to the road consisting of 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.

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.^[3]

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
• 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. 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.