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===Modern===
===Modern===
[[File:Taisho-text.jpg|right|thumb|320px|Excerpt from a 1925 [[Noh]] ''utaibon'', an example of the typical early 20th century (pre-war) form of movable type printing, including ''kyûjitai kanji'' and ''katakana furigana''.]]
While ''hiragana'' are standardized today into a single form for each ''kana'', e.g. あ being the only ''hiragana'' character for the sound "a", up until the Meiji period there was no singular standard character. While many of the ''kana'' standard today were in use in the pre-modern period, they were used alongside calligraphically abbreviated forms of a number of other ''kanji'' as well, with no particular preference given to the ''kana'' we now take as standard. For example, と, the standard ''kana'' for the sound "to" today, is derived from an abbreviation of the ''kanji'' 止 (''tomaru'', "to stop"). But in pre-modern and early modern texts, this と is used interchangeably with calligraphically abbreviated forms of the ''kanji'' 登、東、斗、度、土、and 刀.<ref>Kasama eiin sôkan kangyôkai, ''Jiten kana: shahon wo yomu tanoshimi'' 字典かな～写本をよむ楽しみ, Kasama shoin, 2010, 33-34.</ref> It was only from the Meiji period onwards that と developed any special prominence over these other ways of conveying the sound "to."
While ''hiragana'' are standardized today into a single form for each ''kana'', e.g. あ being the only ''hiragana'' character for the sound "a", up until the Meiji period there was no singular standard character. While many of the ''kana'' standard today were in use in the pre-modern period, they were used alongside calligraphically abbreviated forms of a number of other ''kanji'' as well, with no particular preference given to the ''kana'' we now take as standard. For example, と, the standard ''kana'' for the sound "to" today, is derived from an abbreviation of the ''kanji'' 止 (''tomaru'', "to stop"). But in pre-modern and early modern texts, this と is used interchangeably with calligraphically abbreviated forms of the ''kanji'' 登、東、斗、度、土、and 刀.<ref>Kasama eiin sôkan kangyôkai, ''Jiten kana: shahon wo yomu tanoshimi'' 字典かな～写本をよむ楽しみ, Kasama shoin, 2010, 33-34.</ref> It was only from the Meiji period onwards that と developed any special prominence over these other ways of conveying the sound "to."