online kanji writing practice

Kanji alive

A free study tool for reading and writing kanji.

Welcome to  Kanji alive , a web application ( https://app.kanjialive.com ) designed to help Japanese language students of all levels learn to read and write  kanji .

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Kanji alive  is a resource for learning  kanji , dedicated to helping you open the door to the fascinating characters that form the written Japanese language. All of the content in the application was created and reviewed with painstaking attention to detail by experienced Japanese instructors in order to help you best study, practice and retain  kanji .

Our Japanese language data and media files (images, sounds, animations, and fonts) are freely available to anyone for re-use under a Creative Commons license. In addition, developers can draw on our data for their applications from our free public API  and access the source code and contribute improvements  to the Kanji alive web application on GitHub.

Key Features of Kanji alive

A hand-written kanji animation

To help you write  kanji  correctly, all our kanji  animations are hand-written in the style experienced in common, daily use — with a regular pen, not a calligraphic brush or generated by a computer. The model animations can be paused and reviewed at any point, stroke by stroke, via their stroke order diagrams or by using the animation playback controls.  Read more  or  watch a demo video .

Detailed information on radicals

Learn how a radical lends meaning to its kanji. View an image of each kanji’s radical, its name, meaning, stroke number, historical derivation, and (for important radicals) its position in the kanji.  Read more  or  watch a demo video .

Mnemonic Hint

Next to each  kanji  you will find vivid mnemonic hints carefully crafted to help you associate the components of a  kanji  to its meaning.  Read more  or  watch a demo video .

Examples of common compound words and their translations

See and hear how the  kanji  you are learning are used in context in up to twelve carefully selected example words, together with audio clips of their pronunciations by native male and female speakers.  Read more  or  watch a demo video .

Recommended Kanji Dictionaries

Discover additional contexts and meanings for each kanji  and more example sentences via a custom web link to Kenkyusha’s online Luminous dictionary or by using the kanji reference numbers for the  Classic Nelson and Kodansha dictionaries.  Read more  or  watch a demo video .

Kanji alive is very easy to use. To quickly familiarize you with the  Kanji alive  web app ( https://app.kanjialive.com ) we have prepared a  User Guide , several short demo videos  and a handy Quick Reference guide in the app itself. Any of these resources can be used to learn how to use Kanji alive .  Japanese language instructors may also wish to read our  Notes for Instructors  which explain our pedagogic principles and design decisions.

Finally, especially for beginners, we have prepared two online resources which cover the history of  kanji , stroke order basics, and radicals. These are the  Introduction to Kanji  and the  214 traditional kanji radicals and their variants . We encourage anyone who has just begun to study  kanji  to review these documents carefully before using  Kanji alive  in earnest.

Thank you for your interest in Kanji alive! Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or comments.

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Top 5 apps for Kanji Writing

Do you struggle with writing Japanese Kanji?  Can’t seem to grasp how to remember the order of the strokes and positions? Many Japanese learners out there are also feeling the same pain.

With smartphones, desktops and tablets, you can study and practice Japanese kanji wherever you go! You don’t necessarily need to have a quiet environment and a desk to pull out your pen and notebook, just a simple smartphone will do.

In this blog, we have compiled some of the popular Japanese study apps that you can download to kickstart your Kanji learning

Just started learning Japanese? Head to our main article about the Japanese writing system for a more comprehensive guide on hiragana, katakana and kanji!

1. Kaizen Languages: Japanese

Kaizen Languages Japanese app has a Kanji writing section in the app that contains broad study material from JLPT N5 to N1 level. Each JLPT level has more than 10 sets of Kanjis, where you can study the kanjis, take the reading quiz and a writing quiz. When taking the kanji writing quiz, the app provides the English word: the on and kun reading of the kanji. This allows you to guess what kanji to write. If you are ever stuck on the question, you can ask for a hint that displays the dotted line of the kanji, or the individual stroke of the kanji.

The unique characteristic of this Kaizen Japanese app is that you can learn a new language through conversing with their AI robots. Through this method, you can learn Japanese in the most natural way possible, though common Japanese phrases rather than the unnatural textbook phrases not commonly used till this day.

Android – coming soon

2. Learn Japanese! – Kanji

We all know there is no shortcut to learning a language, and in order to do so vocabulary build up is as important as grammar lessons. The great thing about this app is that they make you remember how to write, read, and understanding the vocabulary through repetition. This apps offers a wide array of kanjis from JLPT N5-N1 to practice.

The order of study method with this app is, they first give you two vocabularies they want you to remember. In this case, it is the two kanjis 一(ichi) and 二(ni). Both flashcards contain the kanji, the hiragana reading and the English translation. Each flashcards also have an audio playback function. When you proceed, the app asks you to write and trace the given kanji.

After practicing, the app will test you to match the kanji with the hiragana reading. It also quizes you on the English meaning with the hiragana reading. This app uses a number of combinations to test your knowledge and memorization of the vocabulary. Within the two kanjis, the repetition of quizzing you on kanji will help you to remember the reading, as well as practice writing numerous times.

3. Kanji Teacher – Learn Japanese

Kanji Teacher learning app separates itself from the others in the way that it absolutely does not let you pass onto the next kanji, if you did not write the kanji in the correct order of strokes. If your phone is on a buzzer, it will vibrate, letting you know you missed the right kanji order. After correcting yourself and writing the correct stroke, they will highlight the area where you have made a mistake and you can compare to the current kanji you wrote, opposed to the kanji you wrote wrongly.

Proper steps to write this kanji on the right vs How I wrongly wrote it

Iphone only

4. Kanji GO – Learn Japanese

This app serves as a vocabulary dictionary. Users can look at N5 kanji, understand the meaning in English, as well as memorize the multiple “kun” and “on” readings of the kanji. When studying for the kanji, there is play function, where users are able to see the stroke order of the kanji. The users then can select the pen function where there is the kanji guided line for users to practice writing it themselves. Another benefits of this study app, is that while tracing the guided kanji lines, there is a green and red circle at each end, signaling where to start and end. This is very helpful in helping Japanese learners write the kanji not only for the correct stroke order, but stroke direction as well.

The only downsides of the app is that JLPT N4-N1 are additional paid features, and that the quizzes do not test users on kanji writing, rather the kanji definition, “kun” and “on” readings.

Imiwa? app is a superb study app that serves as a dictionary and a kanji learning application as well. You can search words that you do not know, which translates in English for you, and vice versa if you search in English. It also is an educational app for those that are aiming to ace the JLPT exams, where there is a section that seperates all the kanji within the 5 categories. When coming across the unfamiliar kanji, details of “on” and “kun” reading is shown. There is an animated demonstration of writing the kanji. The kanji is also translated in English, Chinese, Korean, French, Spanish and Portugeuse making the app very globally friendly.

Kanjis categorized in JLPT levels             App used as a dictionary

Bonus: Kanji Practice N1, N2, N4, N5

This is a fun app for users to simple practice writing kanji. You can choose to practice kanji from the 1st to 6th grade elementary kanji. This app is fairly simple, you just select whatever kanji you’d like to go over. The app gives you a variety of pen colors , and you can use that to trace the guided kanji strokes.

The only downsides of this study app is that they do not provide any definitions of explanations of the kanji.

These are just a few samples of many – looking for more suggestions?  We have some other ways to learn and practice Kanji for you 

If you are interested in studying Japanese in Tokyo, find out more about our school by filling out the form below.

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• Draw it in the drawing area
• Type the name in the text area
• Look for it in the list
• Notice that 漢 is made of several components: 氵 艹 口 夫
• Draw any of these components (one at a time) in the drawing area, and select it when you see it
• Alternatively, look for a component in the list. 氵 艹 口 each have three strokes; 夫 has four strokes
• If you know the meanings of the components, type any of them in the text area: water (氵), grass (艹), mouth (口) or husband (夫)
• Keep adding components until you can see your kanji in the list of matches that appears near the top.
• Draw a component in the center of the area, as large as you can
• Try to draw the component as it appears in the kanji you're looking up
• Don't worry about stroke order or number of strokes
• Don't draw more than one component at a time

Kanshudo drawing practice center: hiragana, katakana, components and kanji

Kanji Writing Practice

Printable Writing Practice Sheets with grid lines (PDF)

Handwriting Practice Sheet

How to download/print.

Click the link. PDF document will be displayed.

To download the file, choose [ Save As... ] from [File] menu.

To print on papers, choose [ Print... ] from [File] menu.

To view the PDF file, you need Adobe Reader, a free application distributed by Adobe Systems.

How to Practice

We recommend to do the following practice.

• First Row : Carefully imitate the shape of sample letters.
• Second Row (left) : Write letters by occasionally looking the sample.
• Second Row (right) : Write a letter without looking, then compare with the sample. Repeat the same.

Refer grid lines to check the position of each stroke.

This one-time practice would be enough to get familiar with the shape of letters.

Repeat the practice to become a master of beautiful handwriting!

Handwriting Instructions

Handwriting instructions for each letter are available at the following pages.

Related Topics

• Hiragana Writing Practice
• Katakana Writing Practice
• Kanji Master Drill

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StudyKanji.net

Resource for learning japanese kanji, kanji quizzer (beta).

Try the new progressive web version of the Kanji Quizzer app . The app features a fully redesigned, responsive interface that works on any device. The app is currently in beta testing and is free while the testing period is ongoing. Users who sign up for an account during the beta test will get lifetime access to all of the app's existing content.

Kanji Quizzer

Practice your Japanese reading ability with this simple quiz application. Choose from Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji (organized by JLPT level). Quiz questions are multiple choice and appear in random order. Try the web version or download the app for IOS .

Kanji Flashcards

Practice Japanese Kanji with this simple flashcard viewing application. Flashcards are an easy and effective way to memorize Kanji. In addition to single kanji flashcards, we also have flashcards for vocabulary words containing one or more kanji. Kanji and vocabulary flashcards are divided into groups based on the JLPT level of the related kanji.

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Yes, you know hundreds of Kanji, and you can read a newspaper or your favorite manga all the way to the end. But can you write? If you want to learn Kanji by writing or learn writing Kanji, this is your one-stop site for all the worksheets.

Download printable handwriting practice worksheets for Japanese Kanji by JLPT level, Grade Level, Wanikani Level, and Frequency. Every sheet is free, now and forever!

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List of 1,026 kanji for japanese students in elementary school, from 1st grade to sixth grade., wanikani is a japanese radicals, kanji, and vocabulary learning web app that uses mnemonics and srs to make kanji learning simple., kanji garden, kanji garden is a free mnemonic-based srs kanji learning tool that features about 2600 kanji., kanji list ordered by the frequency they are used in the japanese language..

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A Kanji Writing Practice Strategy That Really Works

Ready to take your kanji writing practice from 0 to 60 in 15 minutes flat?

Then keep reading…

If you want to learn kanji ASAP, you need to practice:

• Stroke Order

The more your kanji writing practice includes these four things, the better you’ll be able to remember the kanji when you need them most. Like on tests. Or when you’re writing that email to your new boss.

So let’s start with some kanji writing practice that covers these four basic bases…

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The #1 Focus for Beginners: Stroke Order

The very first thing you need to learn is stroke order.

It’s fundamental.

To get up and running right now, grab your smartphone and…

Nab a stroke order app

Yes, they do exist. There are Japanese language-learning apps devoted exclusively to learning stroke order. The one I use is called Kanji Draw, by Lusil. There’s another one with the same name by Leafdigital.

Give them both a try and see which one works for you.

There are obvious advantages to practicing writing with an app . It’s free, you can pull out your phone any time you want to practice, and you don’t have to worry about pencil and paper.

But don’t rely only on apps.

Look for a kanji book

When you want lots of structure, find yourself a kanji practice book. There are lots of textbooks out there to help you learn kanji, but they don’t all help you learn stroke order.

Books such as Japanese Kanji Power   and Tuttle Learning Japanese Kanji are two examples of books that include stroke order. These types of books are great because they also give you some space to look at the kanji and practice it.

But if you have a mobile device, definitely nab an app, like Kanji Draw or JA Sensei . These apps not only show you the stroke order, but also the stroke direction.

And that’s just as important…

Find a kanji web app

Web apps such as Kanji Alive are designed to help you learn to read and write kanji. This app lets you search for kanji by meaning, grade, or you can input the character itself if you have a Japanese kanji input tool. It gives you the stroke order along with the meanings, phonetics, and definitions.

This app can be a useful reference when you want to look up a kanji and find out its stroke order.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Click here to check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

Try FluentU for FREE!

When in doubt, get Japanese people to help you. They’re right most of the time, and can even teach you shorthand methods.

Got your apps and books ready to go?

Now let’s start with the kanji writing practice…

Kanji Writing Practice: My Ultimate Strategy

Let’s say you’ve got a bunch of kanji you want to practice.

What’s the best strategy?

I use what I call the 3-pile approach.

It’s simple. Create flashcards that have the kanji on one side and your learning objectives on the other: stroke order, kanji meanings, sounds, and so forth.

Here are a couple of tips to help you do this right:

• Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Dip your toes in by only studying stroke order at first. Or maybe adding one or two other things…like the meaning of the kanji or the sounds.
• Leave space on the back of the flashcard. Once you “graduate” from Stroke Order Academy, it’ll be time to add more stuff to the back of your flashcard. So save room for seconds…
• When you’ve got your kanji list and are ready to practice, make one big pile .

Your Recipe for Success: The 3-Pile Approach

In a nutshell, here’s how it works: you go down through the pile you made and practice writing the kanji. Keep those that you got wrong in the same pile, then move the ones you got right into a new stack on the right.

You should have two piles. Now, go through both piles and repeat the process. Move the ones you got right to the right, and leave the ones you got wrong in the same stack. You probably have 3 piles now.

And …this is important…you can’t stop until you’ve pushed all the kanji to the right, through 3 piles into a 4th and final “finished” pile.

Why does this work? It forces you to keep practicing the ones you get wrong until you get them right a certain number of times. When you’re done, they’ll be in the “finished” pile all the way on the right side.

In case this is a little confusing, we’ll walk through the steps in detail.

Let’s say you’ve got 10 kanji you’re trying to learn before that big test on Friday. So you make one big pile.

Yes, that’s hardly going to make “1 big pile,” but anyways…

1. Put the pile in front of you, a bit to the left.

Pull off the top card, then write the kanji in your notebook once.

Look at the back of the card. Make sure you get the stroke order and the direction right.

Got it? Good.

Write it four more times in your notebook: good old-fashioned drilling . This helps you learn to write it the correct way.

2. Move the flashcard to a new pile on the right.

Keep going through the first pile until you get to the bottom.

Each time you get it right, write the kanji four more times, then move the flashcard one pile to the right.

Each time you get it wrong, write it four times the right way and leave it in the same pile.

Again, by keeping the ones you get wrong in the same pile, this forces you to try it again until you do get it right.

Practice makes perfect.

3. Once you’ve gone through all the kanji, start again at the first pile.

Now you get to try the kanji you got wrong.

And if you get it wrong again, leave it in the same place until you get it right.

Go through one pile at a time until all your kanji have been moved to the “finished” pile.

I suggest going through the “finished” pile one last time, then you can “graduate” these kanji to the next level.

And that’s it!

Pretty easy, right?

It seems simple, but this basic flashcard strategy will help you learn how to write kanji in no time.

You’re probably saying, “That’s not enough practice to actually memorize a character. I’ll just forget them tomorrow.”

And you’re probably right.

Now is a good time to put the kanji away for another day. Like tomorrow. When you come back to them again – in a few days or a week – repeat the process with more piles until you’ve internalized the kanji.

I call this the Stroke Order Academy .

So how many levels should you use for your Stroke Order Academy?

I use 3 levels and keep separate boxes for each level:

• New:  Put completely new kanji into this level and move the kanji through 3 piles.
• Medium:  Once a kanji has graduated from the “new” level, put it into another bin or box. Come back to these kanji a little bit later. And a little bit less often. I like to use 5 piles for this box.
• Easy:  This is the last level! You want to make sure you really know your kanji before you stop practicing them, so use 7 or 10 piles for this level. But you’ve probably got these down, so just come back to them after a week or two.

How to Max out Your Learning with Your Flashcards

This 3-pile approach is a great way to practice writing kanji. But there’s a lot more to kanji than just stroke order…

Remember how I said to leave space on the back of your card to write more stuff?

Once you’ve got the hang of stroke order, you’ll be able to use this same strategy for building vocabulary , learning kanji sounds, kanji meanings, and so on.

Here are a few tips for maxing out the potential of your flashcards.

• Don’t be afraid to “repeat a grade.” If a character graduates the Medium Level and still needs some work, send it through again. And again. And again. Until you get it.
• Be systematic and disciplined. This type of approach will really work…if you put in the time. Set aside a certain number of hours per day or per week, then sit down with no distractions. Turn off cell phones and TVs.
• Set goals. If you’re enrolled in a class, focus on the kanji you’ve got to learn for class. If not, pick a certain amount of kanji per day or per week, depending on how ambitious (or crazy) you are. Don’t go overboard or you’ll get overwhelmed.
• Once you’ve got stroke order down, practice sounds, meaning, and vocab. The best way to do this is to add vocabulary to the back of a card – both compound nouns and verbs . This will help you learn on and kun readings, plus the meanings and vocabulary words.
• Chunk out the kanji. I think it’s best to start with no more than 20 kanji. Keep your levels small and push those kanji through. When piles get too big, they’ll start to get scary.
• Focus on the short-term. One good way to get discouraged is to focus on how slow you’re going. Don’t think about being able to read a Japanese newspaper or write a Japanese email just yet. It’s a recipe for losing heart. Keep your eyes on the kanji in front of you.
• Create a reward system. Can’t stay disciplined? Trust me, I know how hard it can be. That’s why I like easy stuff like kanji apps. But another way to keep yourself on task is to create a reward system: don’t watch that anime until you’ve finished this set of kanji. Or give yourself a special treat each time your study session is done.

This simple method will help you learn to write kanji in no time. But if there’s anything that needs tweaking – by all means, tweak! There’s no one right way for everyone. If you need more piles or more levels, then throw them in there.

The most important thing is practice. Hopefully this approach will give you a little bit of structure and move your studies forward so you can ace that test or write that email.

And One More Thing...

If you love learning Japanese with authentic materials, then I should also tell you more about FluentU .

FluentU naturally and gradually eases you into learning Japanese language and culture. You'll learn real Japanese as it's spoken in real life.

FluentU has a broad range of contemporary videos as you'll see below:

FluentU makes these native Japanese videos approachable through interactive transcripts. Tap on any word to look it up instantly.

All definitions have multiple examples, and they're written for Japanese learners like you. Tap to add words you'd like to review to a vocab list.

And FluentU has a learn mode which turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples.

The best part? FluentU keeps track of your vocabulary, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You'll have a 100% personalized experience.

The FluentU app is now available for iOS and Android, and it's also available as a website that you can access on your computer or tablet .

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Want to write Kanji?

I’m learning Japanese for almost 3 years. 2 years ago, when I was jobless for a few months, I started writing Kanji, according to the strokes. It was fun ; it was interesting , it was engaging . After that, I got a job, moved to Tokyo. It was then when I was introduced to Wanikani. Wanikani said

It’s the future, and everything is digital!

I moved the website to kanji.sh . The PDFs are there on write page.

Your link has a typo, by the way.

That aside, the site looks really cool! This looks like a really great resource, and I’m glad you’ve made it–I’ll probably start using it when I want to start focusing on writing more. (Probably in preparation for study abroad language classes.)

For those other people who get stumped like me, it’s supposed to be https://kanji-printer.web.app

Kani printer sounds kinda snazzy though…

Wow, thanks for this!

These are fantastic! Thank you so much for making them! I have tried to get into writing before using Skritter, but I really dislike writing things out with my finger, this will give me that much desired pen-on-paper feeling.

ありがとうございます！！！

Thanks for sharing this. I wrote a post to ask for something similar only a few days ago.

@curiousjp also shared some of his work here

And while looking this up, I also eventually stumbled on a post by @suchmaske here

Good luck for the N3!

This is great, fantastic job!

Very nice site. I’ll try some writing.

You may do the opposite: Learning to Read by practice Writing!

Oooh! Now I have a reason to buy the sparkly brush pens I saw at Loft the other day!

Very nice! ^>^ I’ve been putting off practicing writing long enough. Time to give it some real practice!

This really is awesome. I had no intention on learning to write, but this might make me change my mind!

Writing the Kanjis is really fun and satisfying so I encourage anyone who hasn’t gotten into that yet to give it a go.

Wow that’s super helpful thank you! I love writing kanji, and nothing beats pencil on paper. If anyone’s interested, I can share my two cents on how I practice writing. Since I don’t always have time to write kanji, here’s my method. When I’m first learning new wanikani kanji, I look up the stroke order using the tanoshiijapanese website. Then, every time I do my reviews, I “air write” the strokes using my finger on my desk/computer. That way, even if my handwriting for the kanji would still look messy, I’m drilling the stroke order at the same frequency I’m drilling the word meaning. It helps it stick and takes up the least time during reviews. Killing two birds with one stone, basically.

These are excellent! Perfectly made, all the information I want about the kanji while practicing it.

Very cool! If I had one suggestion, it would be to perhaps include an option for a zipped folder with worksheets in it for the different categories you have listed. For example you could group all JLPT files into one, or for WK do them in groups of 10. Do note this might just be my data horder tendencies coming to light here, so grain of salt. Thank you!