Noun
furigana (plural furigana)
(Japanese typography) Kana printed next to or above a kanji or other character to indicate the pronunciation.
According to Ministry of Education guidelines, and the opinions of educators, the use of Japanese furigana should be avoided in English teaching due to the differences in pronunciation between English and Japanese. Source: Internet
Also, because the kanji represent meaning while the furigana represent sound, one can combine the two to create puns or indicate meanings of foreign words. Source: Internet
Another use is to write the kanji for something which had been previously referenced, but write furigana for sore ( それ main) or are ( あれ main), meaning "that". Source: Internet
Examples Here is an example of Japanese ruby characters (called furigana ) for Tokyo (" 東京 main"): Most furigana (Japanese ruby characters) are written with the hiragana syllabary, but katakana and romaji are also occasionally used. Source: Internet
In case an isolated kanji character has a long reading—for example 〜に携わる main (where 携 main reads たずさ main, tazusa)—the furigana may instead spill over into the space next to the neighboring kana characters, without condensing or changing spacing. Source: Internet
Hiragana can also be written in a superscript called furigana above or beside a kanji to show the proper reading. Source: Internet