Hanamaru — Learn hiragana and katakana

Hanamaru teaches the two Japanese kana scripts, hiragana and katakana, in short lessons. Meet each character with its romaji, hear it, watch its stroke order, then practise until you can read it on sight. Characters you have learned come back for review just before you would forget them.

Available for iPhone and Android. The kana course is free, with no ads, no in-app purchases and no account. More Japanese is in the works.

Contact and support

Email [email protected]. We usually reply within two working days. Please tell us your device model, its OS version and the app version (Settings › About), and what you were doing when the problem happened.

Frequently asked questions

I can't hear any audio. Hanamaru uses your device's built-in Japanese voice. Check that the device is not muted and that Sound is on in the app's Settings. On Android, open your device settings › Text-to-speech output, and make sure a Japanese voice is installed for your speech engine (for example, Speech Services by Google › Install voice data › Japanese). On iPhone, Japanese is built in; if it is missing, add it under Settings › Accessibility › Spoken Content › Voices.
Where is my progress stored? Only on your device. There is no account and no cloud sync, so progress does not move to a new phone automatically. Your device backup (iCloud or Android backup) may include it.
My progress disappeared. Uninstalling the app, clearing its storage or using Reset progress deletes it permanently. We cannot recover it, because we never had a copy.
How do I delete my data? Use Settings › Reset progress, or uninstall the app. We do not hold any of your data, so there is nothing to request from us.
Does the app need the internet? No. Everything works offline. The only things that open outside the app are the links to this website and to email.
Which romanisation do you use? Modified Hepburn, the system used on most signs in Japan (for example し = shi, つ = tsu, ん = n).
I found a mistake in the content. Please tell us at [email protected] with the character and the screen. Accuracy matters more to us than anything else in the app.

Accessibility

Feedback never relies on colour alone: every answer is marked with a symbol and words as well.
The app follows your device's text size (up to 200%), dark mode and Reduce Motion settings.
If something is hard to read or hard to reach, tell us. We would rather fix it than read about it in a review.

Policies

Hanamaru is an independent app. Not affiliated with the Japan Foundation or Japan Educational Exchanges and Services.

Hanamaru is made by nstudio, Hungary.