What is the appropriate size of hiragana in proportion to kanji?

Question

I remember being told that hiragana should be the same size as kanji when writing them by hand. However, there are times when I see handwritten kana that are much smaller than the kanji. Does this carry any nuance or is there any purpose to it?

Answer 1

Usually, they should be the same size, but considering the history that okurigana used to be markings (like subscripts) on the Chinese text to add Japanese inflections, it is natural that they are written smaller than kanji. In fact, in caligraphy, it is usually said that hiragana should be written smaller than kanji.

Answer 2

In Japanese calligraphy and penmanship, usually kana are written slightly smaller than kanji. Basically, the more strokes a character has, the larger it should be written for proper balance and appearance. This is because simple characters look larger than complicated ones with human eyes. This article says, "漢字：10、ひらがな：8、カナ・ローマ字・数字：7～6、特殊記号：6".

Addition: This is not only in handwriting and not only in Japanese. Even in typography, kana are designed slightly smaller than kanji. It is pretty common from traditional metal types to modern computer-designed fonts. Also, in Chinese calligraphy, characters with few strokes are written slightly smaller than characters with many strokes.

Answer 3

In this particular case ギャル文字 is referring to the uber-feminine use of the language. Some of those characters like the ッ are like our emoticons ;-) and some are legitimate. For example in ギャル文字, the ギ{gi} is modified by ャ{ya}(small YA), so instead of reading it "Giyaru" it is read "Gyaru".

Most of the time you see the smaller character it will be modifying the previous character. Mostly used with the "Y" characters (ya, yu, yo) but it can be used with others. The small TSU character makes the following character longer, so the double "P" in Sapporo is written "さっぽろ" and not pronounced "Satsuhoro" but rather "Sapporo". In the example JPG you linked they used the katakana TSU ッ and only for effect. But can also use it legit in クスッ{kusu}(swallow the last "U") and still be cutesy.