Furigana 振り仮名

furigana · from Japanese

What is furigana?

Furigana are small kana printed above or beside kanji to show their pronunciation, common in children's books, manga and rare names.

Furigana (also called ruby) let readers who do not know a kanji still read it aloud. Manga aimed at young readers often add them to every kanji. Authors also use them creatively, giving an unusual reading to a word for effect.

Examples

漢字(かんじ) kanji; 東京(とうきょう) Tōkyō; manga 本気 written with the reading マジ maji (seriously)

Kungfucius says: Training wheels for kanji. Nobody judges you for keeping them on.