The origin of man'yogana (The phonetic writing system of ancient Japan)

Most scholars in Japanese studies (history, linguistics, literature) tend t o accept in one form another the ancient legend that the phonetic writing s ystem of ancient Japan, known as man'yogana, came from Paekche. This legend about the ancient Korean kingdom--Paekche--appears in the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, Japan's two oldest chronicles. To date there have been few attempts to use concrete data from the peninsula either to prove or reject this leg end. This article supplies information from all epigraphic data on the Kore an peninsula to show that Paekche spread the use of Chinese (sinographs) to be used phonogrammatically and that Koguryo educated the rest of the penin sula in the use of this script.