Iroha

From UoWiki

Iroha is a Japanese poem most likely written sometime during the Heian era (AD 794-1179). Authorship is traditionally ascribed to the Heian era Japanese Buddhist priest and scholar Kukai.

Iroha is distinctive in that it is a perfect pangram; it uses each and every kana precisely once (with the exception of '-n', which was added to the syllabary later). For this reason, the poem was used as an ordering of the Japanese syllabary until the Meiji era reforms in the 19th century. One still occasionally encounters iroha in modern Japan. For example, it is used for seat numbering in theaters.

Iroha is used as an indicator of sound changes in the spoken Japanese language in the Heian era.

The word iroha can also be used to mean "ABCs" or "The Basics" in Japanese.

See Iroha