Learning Japanese is said to be difficult. No language is easy. However, one of the reasons why the Japanese language is said to be difficult is probably due to the notation system.
In the past, Japan did not have a written language, so folklore and history were passed down orally. Probably from the Yayoi period (900BC-300AD) onwards, people from China and the Korean peninsula brought Kanji characters to Japan.
According to common belief, few Chinese characters were used in Japan during the late Yayoi period. The oldest surviving written material in Japan is “the Inaridai 1 Tumulus Iron Sword Name”, which suggests that there was a planned introduction of Chinese characters from the end of the 4th century to the beginning of the 5th century book. The well-known Chinese scholar Akiyasu Todo states that that there was a much earlier general use of k Chinese characters
the Inaridai 1 Tumulus Iron Sword Name：Ichihara History Museum collection, https://www.imuseum.jp/index.html
In the early Japanese imperial court, official documents were drawn up in Chinese. Naturally, Chinese characters were used. Chinese characters was also used to denote Japanese texts.
This is where the hassle of Japanese notation begins.
Image of the page head : Tokyo National Museum Collection ,
Tohaku Hasegawa, ”Shorinn-zu byoubu”「松林図屏風」Partial cut outout,16 century, Edo period.
