Okurigana

Definition:

Okurigana (送り仮名, literally “accompanying kana”) are the hiragana characters written alongside a kanji that complete a Japanese word — particularly the inflectional endings of verbs and adjectives. When a Japanese verb or adjective is written, the kanji represents the root or stem of the word, and the hiragana that follow show how the word is grammatically inflected. For example, the verb taberu (食べる, “to eat”) is written with the kanji 食 (representing the semantic root “eat”) plus the hiragana べる as okurigana. Okurigana allow written Japanese to accurately represent grammatical form while retaining the semantic density of kanji.

Also known as: 送り仮名 (おくりがな)

In-Depth Explanation

Why okurigana exist.

Japanese kanji are logographic — each character represents a morpheme (unit of meaning), not a phoneme (unit of sound). Most native Japanese words (和語, yamato-kotoba) that are verbs or adjectives are polysyllabic, but the kanji that represents their core meaning may correspond to only part of the pronunciation. Okurigana provide the hiragana “tail” that:

Completes the pronunciation of the word (the full reading cannot be inferred from the kanji alone).
Marks grammatical inflection — the hiragana portion changes when the word is conjugated.
Disambiguates kanji with multiple readings or meanings.

Examples by word class.

Verbs (動詞):

書く kaku (to write) — kanji 書 + okurigana く
書き kaki (conjugated stem) — okurigana き
書かない kakanai (negative) — okurigana かない
書いて kaite (te-form) — okurigana いて
食べる taberu (to eat) — kanji 食 + okurigana べる
見る miru (to see) — kanji 見 + okurigana る

Adjectives (形容詞, i-adjectives):

高い takai (tall/expensive) — kanji 高 + okurigana い
高く takaku (adverbial form) — okurigana く
高かった takakatta (past tense) — okurigana かった
新しい atarashii (new) — kanji 新 + okurigana しい

Na-adjectives and nouns typically do not use okurigana (they are written with kanji alone, or kanji + な/の in grammar constructions).

How much kanji, how much okurigana?

The boundary between the kanji portion and the okurigana portion is governed by the Ministry of Education’s Okurigana no Tsukaikata (送り仮名の付け方, 1973, revised) guidelines. Some words have variant okuri styles — for instance, 動かす ugokasu can be written as 動かす (conventional okurigana かす) or in some older texts as 動す.

These standards prescribe the “official” okurigana for Joyo Kanji words and are followed by newspapers, government publications, and textbooks.

Okurigana vs. furigana.

These are frequently confused by learners:

Term	Purpose	Position	Example
Okurigana	Grammatical completion of verb/adjective	Written inline after kanji	食べる (べる is okurigana)
Furigana	Pronunciation guide for kanji	Written above or beside kanji	食(た)べる

Furigana annotates kanji pronunciation; okurigana is the permanent grammatical component of how the word is written.

Okurigana and word lookup.

Understanding okurigana is essential for dictionary lookups. When searching for a verb or adjective:

Dictionary form ends in -u (for godan verbs) or -ru (for ichidan verbs) — this includes the okurigana う or る etc.
The kanji alone is not the dictionary entry — you need the kanji + okurigana in dictionary form.
Recognizing which hiragana are okurigana (grammatical endings) vs. compound kana within the kanji reading helps identify the dictionary form correctly.

Learning implications.

Learners must internalize okurigana as part of each word’s spelling — not just the kanji. Memorizing that 食 = “eat” is insufficient; the full form 食べる must be memorized as the citation form. SRS tools like WaniKani and Anki present words in their full okurigana form for this reason.

Common Misconceptions

Misconception: Okurigana are optional.

The okurigana of a verb or adjective are a required part of its standard written form. Omitting them (writing 食 instead of 食べる) is non-standard except in very specific contexts (newspaper headlines, labels, signs) where brevity is prioritized.

Misconception: All hiragana after kanji are okurigana.

In compound words, the hiragana between or after kanji may be grammatical particles (は, を, に) or part of a different word — not okurigana. Okurigana are specifically the inflectional hiragana that are part of the same word as the kanji they follow.

History

Classical Japanese: Okurigana have been used since early written Japanese to complete verb and adjective forms in texts like the Kojiki (712 CE) and Man’yoshu.
Meiji/Taisho eras: Inconsistent okurigana usage across publications — multiple variants for the same word were common.
1959: Japanese government issues first formal okurigana guidelines to standardize usage across official documents and education.
1973: Revised Okurigana no Tsukaikata guidelines issued — establishes the modern standard still used today.
1981 / 2010: Joyo Kanji revisions include prescribed okurigana for each entry, reinforcing standardization.

Practical Application

For Japanese learners, okurigana mastery develops naturally through vocabulary acquisition rather than rule memorization. When learning a verb like 食べる (taberu, to eat) through SRS, the full kanji + okurigana form (食 + べる) is absorbed as a unit — you learn that the kanji 食 carries the meaning “eat” while the okurigana べる completes the word and carries inflectional information. This becomes critical when the same kanji appears in different words: 食べる (taberu) vs. 食う (kuu) vs. 食事 (shokuji) each have different okurigana boundaries.

Practically, learners should:

Write vocabulary in full form, not kanji alone — learning 始 without context is less useful than learning 始める (to start, transitive) and 始まる (to start, intransitive) as complete words with okurigana.
Use okurigana for dictionary lookup — when encountering an unfamiliar word, identifying where the okurigana begins tells you the kanji reading boundary, which is essential for looking up the word.
Practice handwriting with okurigana — even brief handwriting practice reinforces the kanji-okurigana boundary, building familiarity with standard written forms.
Learn i-adjective patterns — okurigana in adjectives (e.g., 大きい, 美しい) mark the inflectable portion: 大きかった, 美しくない. Recognizing this pattern simplifies adjective conjugation.

Related Terms

Research

1. Seeley, C. (1991). A History of Writing in Japan. Leiden: Brill.

Historical overview of the development of the Japanese writing system, including the gradual standardization of okurigana conventions from classical manuscripts through the Meiji-era script reforms and into the modern standardization period.

2. Gottlieb, N. (1995). Kanji Politics: Language Policy and Japanese Script. London: Kegan Paul International.

Examines the political and educational dimensions of Japanese script policy, including the government’s efforts to standardize okurigana through the Ministry of Education guidelines — useful context for understanding why okurigana conventions exist and why variation persisted so long.

3. Unger, J.M. (1996). Literacy and Script Reform in Occupation Japan: Reading between the Lines. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Traces the post-WWII period in which US Occupation authorities and Japanese reformers debated script simplification; the eventual outcome was the Joyo Kanji and standardized okurigana system that still governs modern written Japanese.

4. Rohsenow, J.S. (1986). The written language: Kanji and okurigana. In Japanese Language (Encyclopaedia Britannica supplementary materials)

Accessible encyclopedic treatment of how okurigana function in the modern writing system, useful as a reference for learners trying to understand the logic of kanji + okurigana as complete written units.

5. NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute (2011). NHK\u65e5\u672c\u8a9e\u767a\u97f3\u30a2\u30af\u30bb\u30f3\u30c8\u8f9e\u5178 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary).

While primarily a pitch accent reference, the NHK dictionary is a standard resource that presents all entries in their conventional kanji + okurigana form — useful for verifying standard written forms for verbs and adjectives including their prescribed okurigana.