gojūon

{| align=right style="margin-left:1em;" |- | {| class="wikitable" align=right style="vertical-align:top;padding:2px;" |+ ordering(hiragana) |- ! !! a !!| i !!| u !!| e !!| o |- align=center !title="no lead consonant"|∅ ||||||||| |- align=center !K ||||||||| |- align=center !S ||||||||| |- align=center !T ||||||||| |- align=center !N ||||||||| |- align=center !H ||||||||| |- align=center !M ||||||||| |- align=center !Y |||bgcolor="#A7A79F"| ||||bgcolor="#C0C0C8"| || |- align=center !R |||||||||| |- align=center !W |||bgcolor="#E0E0E8"|||bgcolor="#A7A79F"| ||bgcolor="#E0E0E8"||| |- ! colspan="6"| Additional kana |- | || colspan=5 | |} |- style="text-align: right;" | archaic |- style="text-align: right;" | obsolete |- style="text-align: right;" | unused/unknown |}

In the Japanese language, the is a traditional system ordering kana characters by their component phonemes, roughly analogous to alphabetical order. The "fifty" () in its name refers to the 5×10 grid in which the characters are displayed. Each kana, which may be a hiragana or katakana character, corresponds to one sound in Japanese. As depicted at the right using hiragana characters, the sequence begins with , , , , , then continues with , , , , , and so on and so forth for a total of ten rows of five columns.