What term refers to the written characters used before kanji?


The kanji characters were borrowed from China, so what were the written
language characters called before kanji was introduced?




The generally accepted view is that there was no pre-kanji written script in
Japan.

There are occasional claims of the existance of pre-kanji scripts called
[神代文字]{じんだいもじ}. As the [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jindai_moji)
page mentions:

> Some have claimed since the mid-Edo period that such ancient characters, for
> example such as Chikushi characters and Hokkaido characters, have been found
> in archeological remains, in Kofun and on mountains, but **all jindai moji
> are generally considered to be forgeries**.




The generally accepted view is that there was no pre-kanji written script in
Japan.

There are occasional claims of the existance of pre-kanji scripts called
[神代文字]{じんだいもじ}. As the [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jindai_moji)
page mentions:

> Some have claimed since the mid-Edo period that such ancient characters, for
> example such as Chikushi characters and Hokkaido characters, have been found
> in archeological remains, in Kofun and on mountains, but **all jindai moji
> are generally considered to be forgeries**.

