Ki no Tsurayuki
During this period, since the language of most official documents was Chinese, most men of the nobility used Chinese characters to write poetry and prose in Chinese, but among women the "kana" syllabary continued to grow in popularity, and more and more men adopted this simpler style of writing as well. Most of the works of literature from the Heian period that are still well-regarded today were written predominantly in "kana". Diaries had been written by men in Chinese for some time, but in the early tenth century Ki no Tsurayuki chose to write his "Tosa Nikki" from the standpoint of a woman, in "kana". Partly due to the "Tosa Nikki"'s influence, diaries written in Japanese became increasingly common.