Learn Hiragana
Free practice — recognition · handwriting · one row at a time
Start practicing →What is hiragana?
Hiragana is the first script most learners tackle when starting Japanese — 46 simple, flowing characters that form the foundation of written Japanese. Every textbook, every word in a Japanese dictionary, every street sign starts here.
Unlike kanji (which carries meaning), hiragana is purely phonetic — each character maps to one syllable. Once you know all 46, you can write any Japanese word using its hiragana form. Most learners memorize hiragana in their first week.
Why this works
Spaced repetition. Instead of cramming all 46 characters at once, you review each one just before you'd forget it. It's the single most studied and most effective technique for memorizing new vocabulary.
And it's personalized to you. Kakuso uses FSRS-6, a state-of-the-art spaced repetition algorithm that learns your individual memory patterns and builds a custom review schedule — so you spend less time on what you already know and more time on what you actually need to review.
Handwriting beats recognition alone. Research consistently shows that learners who write characters by hand retain them far better than learners who only do flashcard recognition. When you move your hand through each stroke, your brain encodes it deeper. Kakuso validates every stroke as you draw — finger, mouse, or stylus, all work.
Unlike filling a notebook where your eyes drift to what you already wrote, here every stroke demands recall from scratch. The canvas is blank each time. No peeking, no autopilot — your brain has to actively reconstruct the character. That effort is what makes the memory stick.
That's why each row below has two practice buttons: one for recognition (typing the romaji), one for handwriting (drawing the character). Do both. It takes longer, but you'll learn faster.
Practice — one row at a time
Each row takes about 2–3 minutes. No account needed to start.
あい
love — you just read your first Japanese word. Two characters. That's all it takes.
Try writing it from left to right — あ then い — to strengthen your memory.
すしがすき
"I like sushi!" — your first Japanese sentence.
Wait — what's が? When you add the small mark ゛(dakuten) to か, it becomes が. This voicing trick applies to the whole か-row: か→が, き→ぎ, く→ぐ, け→げ, こ→ご. You'll practice all of these later.
すき means "to like." が marks what you like. Fifteen minutes in and you're writing sentences.
Write it — left to right, one stroke at a time
Practice Writing
すしはおいしい
"Sushi is delicious!"
は is the topic particle — it marks what you're talking about. You already know this character as "ha," but as a particle it's pronounced "wa." A quirk of Japanese you'll get used to.
Look at おいしい — every single character there you already know: お · い · し · い. You're reading Japanese.
Write the whole phrase — you know every stroke
Practice Writing
わたしはすしがすき
"I like sushi."
わたし (I) は (topic) すし (sushi) が (subject) すき (like). A complete Japanese sentence. 46 characters. Under an hour. The rest is vocabulary.
Write the whole sentence — every stroke yours
Practice Writing
💡 Stuck on a few characters?
Some hiragana shapes stick instantly, others stubbornly refuse to. When you hit a tough one, mnemonics — visual tricks that pair each character with a memorable image — can break the deadlock. A Google search for "hiragana mnemonics" will surface several great free guides.
This kind of visual shortcut works well for kana, since they're shapes without inherent meaning — any memorable association will do. Once you reach kanji, the approach changes: kanji aren't arbitrary, they're built from a small set of components that combine into meaning. We'll teach that method in our upcoming first kanji lesson.
Save your progress (free)
You can practice freely without an account. When you finish a row, Kakuso will offer to save the characters to your study list, so you can continue with spaced repetition reviews — completely free, forever.
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