which is actually very similar to the ideograms of chinese characters in that the ideation is typically in the leading part of the character while the sound is indicated by the following part of the character.
So for example the kanji for oil leads with the three marks associated with the idea of water, and the later half is the character yu which is close to how the word for oil sounds.
Yes, exactly. Some cuneiform scripts also have this type of structure, while others are syllabic.
I was just in Hong Kong and had a discussion about the development of Chinese writing and kanjis. According to the person I was talking to Chinese went through a phase in the distant past where the writing looked like what I would call runes as it looked very similar to European/Middle Eastern runes.