rakugaki: kanji by hand

you don't remember a kanji by looking at it. you remember it by writing it.

rakugaki teaches you to write japanese by hand, stroke by stroke, in the correct order — with your finger or a stylus. every stroke is checked: direction, position, order. get it wrong, start over. get it right, remember it.

a schoolgirl's notebook, not just another app
grid paper, a genkō sheet to write on, kanji circled in red pen when you get them right, よくできました stamps, washi tape and stickers: rakugaki looks like the notebook kids carry to school in Japan, crossed with an old Windows 95. several color themes, including black notebooks written in gel pens — and the original clean look is still one setting away.

from the kana all the way to N1
• all 142 hiragana and katakana (dakuten included), free, with a write-from-memory quiz and a mastery level per character
• over 1,900 kanji covering every JLPT level — N5 is free
• all 182 radicals 部首: a short lesson when one shows up, and an encyclopedia to fill in
• japanese counters (一つ、二人、三本…) explained and drilled, with their pronunciation traps
• every kanji: animated stroke order, color-coded radicals, readings, vocabulary, a translated example sentence — and your own notes

mnemonics that stick
every kanji comes with a story built from its radicals, with a punchline that sticks. 猫, the cat that "hunts in the field's grass — then sleeps sixteen hours." read it once and it's hard to forget. and when two kanji look alike (未/末, 人/入), the app warns you and drills you on telling them apart.

a memory that works for you (SRS)
spaced repetition brings each kanji back right before you'd forget it. ten mastery levels, from apprentice to the engraved 永 rank. reviews are free-form writing, from memory — no soft multiple-choice. readings get their own track, anchored in real words. the kanji that resist you become your enemies 敵, with a drill just for them. set your JLPT goal: the app knows the real exam dates and computes your pace.

playful, not childish
• an RPG-style oni fight: write your due kanji to strike it down
• a calligraphy grade (S to D) on every successful character
• six games: speed, dictation, look-alikes, copying, flashcards and guided tracing
• daily, weekly and monthly challenges — streaks, omamori charms
• leaderboards with Google Play Games: xp, streak, kanji, accuracy
• custom sessions: your level, your misses, your session size
• 100 player levels, 10 ranks, and your year in review
• retro 8-bit sound effects — shameless, but mutable

a real dictionary
all over 1,900 kanji, free to browse. search by meaning, by reading — or draw the kanji you're looking at and the app recognizes it.

also in the box
• full JLPT vocabulary (jmdict) that unlocks as your kanji level up
• daily reminders to keep your streak alive
• fully bilingual: english / french

rakugaki plus
the kana, the counters and N5 are free forever. levels N4 through N1 (1,900 kanji) are part of rakugaki plus: monthly or yearly subscription, with a free trial.

rakugaki is built by one person. no studio, no investors — your subscription directly funds what comes next. thank you for the support.

頑張って — good luck on the kanji road.