Kūkai in several works (especially in Shōjijissōgi and Unjigi) explicates the syllabic letter A as signifying the above-mentioned “primal non-originating” character of all thing-events, as the “mother” of all syllables, letters, and languages, and the king of all mantras. The sound A is also the primal sound made when the mouth first opens to exhale. And in its written form, A constitutes the first stroke of every other syllable. A is the first syllable of the Sanskrit alphabet as well as of the