In addition to its artistic merits, the Man'y?sh? is important for using one of the earliest Japanese writing systems, the cumbersome man'y?gana. Though it wasn't the first use of this writing system, which was either invented for the Kojiki or adapted from early Korean writing systems based on Chinese characters, it was influential enough to give the writing system its name: "the characters of the Man'y?sh?". This system uses Chinese characters in a variety of functions: