Ruby text in Documents


_Note: I know they might not strictly be interchangeable, but I might end up
using "Furigana" and "Ruby text" in an interchangeable manner in this
question._

Hi all,

I'm in the process of writing a short essay in Japanese. I'm going to be
preparing two versions: one with Ruby text on all Kanji that are new to me
(for further self-study purposes), and one with Ruby text on a subset of the
more complex Kanji used.

When I craft a Japanese sentence and decide to place Furigana by a specific
Kanji, do I need to use Hiragana each time?

I've noticed, in the dictionaries I use at the very least, that Onyomi
readings are listed in Katakana and Kunyomi readings in Hiragana. Does this
style carry across to essays and similar types of documents?

For instance, if I want t to use the kanji 上 in a sentence and explicitly mark
the reading as うえ I would use Hiragana in my ruby text. But what if I wanted
to use 日 in a sentence and explicitly mark the reading as ニチ? Would I still
use Hiragana then?

I know that these are stupid examples, but I think that they still illustrate
my question enough.




Generally (barring situations like
[this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/5280/why-does-furigana-
occasionally-appear-as-katakana/5283#5283)) all furigana are written as
hiragana, regardless of whether it's the onyomi or kunyomi of the character.

You could think about it this way: there's nothing **grammatically** wrong
with writing a word like `にち` in hiragana rather than kanji. `ニチ`, on the
other hand, would be ungrammatical (or at least non-standard). When writing
furigana one writes whatever would replace the kanji if the document were to
be re-written without using any kanji.

Also since there seemed to be confusion between ruby/furigana, I believe ruby
is the general word for pronunciation advice/other info printed in a small
font above or beside some characters/text. Furigana is the word used to
specifically describe Japanese ruby. For most students of Japanese (and
probably Japanese people) furigana is a more recognisable, common word to use.




Generally (barring situations like
[this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/5280/why-does-furigana-
occasionally-appear-as-katakana/5283#5283)) all furigana are written as
hiragana, regardless of whether it's the onyomi or kunyomi of the character.

You could think about it this way: there's nothing **grammatically** wrong
with writing a word like `にち` in hiragana rather than kanji. `ニチ`, on the
other hand, would be ungrammatical (or at least non-standard). When writing
furigana one writes whatever would replace the kanji if the document were to
be re-written without using any kanji.

Also since there seemed to be confusion between ruby/furigana, I believe ruby
is the general word for pronunciation advice/other info printed in a small
font above or beside some characters/text. Furigana is the word used to
specifically describe Japanese ruby. For most students of Japanese (and
probably Japanese people) furigana is a more recognisable, common word to use.

