Iroha - Usage

Usage

The iroha contains every kana once, with the exception of ん, which was written む "mu" at the time. For this reason, the poem was frequently used as an ordering of the kana until the Meiji era reforms in the 19th century. Thereafter 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 iroha is often considered "old fashioned" the earliest known copy of the gojūon predates the iroha.

The iroha is still occasionally encountered in modern Japan. For example, it is used for seat numbering in theaters, and (from right to left) across the top of Go game diagrams (kifu), as in Yasunari Kawabata's novel The Master of Go (Meijin). Western go game diagrams use either letters or letters and numbers. In music, the notes of an octave are named i ro ha ni ho he to, written in katakana.

The word いろは (iroha) can also be used to mean "the basics" in Japanese, comparable to the term "the ABCs".

Although the Japanese employ the heavenly stems for rank order besides both the Chinese and Arabic numerals as well as the Latin alphabet, the iroha sequence was used to note the rank of submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War. All long-range submarines had designations beginning with "I" (e.g., the largest submarine had "I400" painted on its conning tower), coastal submarines began with "Ro", and training or marginally usable submarines had "Ha".

Japanese weapons made before 1945 were numbered in series with the original poem—refer to Military Rifles of Japan, 1897–1945 by Honeycutt and Anthony for examples of this practice. It is not known today if this was done out of respect for custom, or for reasons of military security or secrecy. Beginning with the second production of the Type 38 rifle, i.e.: after they produced the first 1,000,000 rifles, the Japanese Koishikawa Arsenal began with series "I" and continued until the Type 38 was replaced by the improved Type 99 (in 1939). The rifles were made in blocks of 100,000 each, before changing the kana symbol to the next in order of the poem.

This practice apparently started after the great Tokyo earthquake of 1923, when the Tokyo Arsenal was almost totally destroyed and production was moved to the Kokura and Nagoya Arsenals.

The weapons affected by this, among others, were the Type 38 rifle, the Type 38 carbine, the Type 44 carbine, and certain machine guns, all in 6.5×50mm Arisaka caliber. After 1939, when the caliber was increased to 7.7 mm, the weapons numbered with this system included the Type 99 long and short rifles, and the Type 0 and Type 2 paratrooper rifles. Handguns were made under a different system, involving subcontractors and private purchases by Japanese officers.

Iroha is also used in numbering the classes of train car for Japanese National Railways (now known as JR). I is first class, Ro is second class and Ha is third class.

Finally, iroha is frequently used as a design motif, as in the stencil-dyed works of the late Serizawa Keisuke.