[INTRO] Script carved from empire, born from silk and war Man’yōgana on the page — ancient to the core This ain’t a font — it’s a thousand years of fight OI [VERSE 1 — The Chinese Inheritance] Han dynasty writing crossed the water cold Kanji landed in Japan — complex, heavy, old Chinese characters borrowed, forced onto a tongue That didn’t match the grammar — the system was wrong Man’yōgana came first — use the sound, drop the meaning Forty strokes for one syllable — the scholars were screaming Monks in the monastery, brushes bleeding ink Chiselling a workaround — stop and think STOP AND THINK [HOOK — call and response, cowbells punching, taiko thunder] WHERE DID IT COME FROM? — CHINA WHO TORE IT APART? — JAPAN WHO SIMPLIFIED THE STROKES? — THE WOMEN WHO HELD THE BRUSH? — THEIR HAND KANA KANA — RISE AND WRITE KANA KANA — BORN IN SPITE (oi oi — carve it — claim it) KANA KANA — RISE AND WRITE [VERSE 2 — The Court Ladies] [shakuhachi flute cuts through the bass] Heian period, 794 — the court was running hot Men wrote in kanji, said that’s all you’ve got But the women of the court said nah, that ain’t it Took man’yōgana and stripped it — simplified the script Cursive kanji, fluid hand — one stroke where there were ten Hiragana rising up — never going back again Murasaki Shikibu picked up the brush and wrote The Tale of Genji — greatest novel of the known world, note GREATEST NOVEL — NOTE [BRIDGE — bass drops out, koto and shakuhachi alone, then detonates back] They called it “women’s hand” Onnade — dismissed But every word in Genji proved That nothing could resist [HOOK — twice as hard] WHERE DID IT COME FROM? — CHINA WHO TORE IT APART? — JAPAN WHO SIMPLIFIED THE STROKES? — THE WOMEN WHO HELD THE BRUSH? — THEIR HAND KANA KANA — RISE AND WRITE KANA KANA — BORN IN SPITE (oi oi — carve it — claim it) KANA KANA — RISE AND WRITE [VERSE 3 — Codification] [acid bass texture grinds in] Meiji era locked it down — standardized the set 46 characters, government decree, no sweat Before that — hundreds of variants, regional, wild Every region wrote it different, every different style Hentaigana — the old forms — swept aside One system, one nation, no place left to hide But the script survived the purges, made it to today Newspaper, manga, novel — hiragana’s here to stay HERE TO STAY [OUTRO — taiko drums solo, then full drop, reverbed bass hits] Thousand years from kanji to the curve you know Monk to court lady to the manga flow Every hiragana character — a war survived Every forty-six — a culture still alive OI — KANA — OI — KANA [air whoosh — cut to silence]
