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

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

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.