Sōgana (草仮名, lit. grass kana) is an archaic Japanese syllabary, now used for aesthetic purposes only. It represents an intermediate cursive form between historic man'yōgana script and modern hiragana.Sōgana appears primarily in Heian era texts, most notably the Eiga Monogatari (栄花物語, trans., Story of Splendor) and The Pillow Book (枕草子, Makura no Sōshi). Originating from cursive forms of the man'yōgana characters, commonly occurring sōgana were further adapted and by the early eleventh century had evolved into the forms of modern hiragana.