真仮名

Etymology
ja. It is called "true", as opposed to hiragana and katakana which no longer retain the original shape of the Han characters (kanji) they derive from, even though it is still "false" as a type of because it is used phonetically. See also and.

Noun

 * 1)  a syllabary with characters drawn from kanji, such as the, that is the precursor to hiragana and katakana