Character Decks
Pick a deck and study it your way — handwrite each character from its sound, or flip-card to recognize it. Spaced repetition does the scheduling.
Study Hiragana and Katakana with Character Decks
Character decks turn the kana into a focused study routine. Choose a prebuilt deck — a single row like か・き・く・け・こ, or the full hiragana or katakana set — and study it two ways: handwrite each character from its sound, or flip a card to recognize it. Every rating feeds a spaced-repetition system that schedules reviews and tracks which kana you have mastered.
How Character Decks Work
Pick a deck to start a session. In Write mode you see a sound and handwrite the matching kana on the canvas; in Recognize mode you see the character and recall its reading, then flip the card to check. After each character you rate your recall as Again, Good, or Easy, and spaced repetition sets when it comes back — often for the ones you miss, rarely for the ones you know.
Write and Recognize
The two modes build the two halves of kana fluency. Write mode trains production and stroke order by having you draw each character from memory, guided by the trace canvas. Recognize mode trains fast reading recall with flip cards. Switch between them freely within a deck; both feed the same mastery tracker, so progress counts no matter how you study.
Why Spaced Repetition Works
Spaced repetition schedules each review for the moment just before you would forget, so every session focuses on the kana on the edge of your memory. Characters you find easy drift to longer intervals and stop wasting your time, while tricky ones return quickly until they stick. It is one of the most efficient ways to commit the kana to long-term memory.
Keep Learning
Pair your decks with the rest of the site: review the full hiragana and katakana chart, build your vocabulary, look up kanji, or study Japanese grammar.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a character deck?
A character deck is a prebuilt set of kana to study together — a single row of hiragana or katakana, or the complete set. You study a deck by handwriting each character from its sound or by recognizing it on a flip card, with spaced repetition scheduling your reviews.
What is the difference between Write and Recognize mode?
Write mode shows you a sound and asks you to handwrite the matching kana, training production and stroke order. Recognize mode shows the character and asks you to recall its reading, training fast reading. Both feed the same mastery tracker, so you can switch between them freely.
How does spaced repetition schedule my reviews?
After each character you rate your recall as Again, Good, or Easy. That rating sets the next interval: an Again comes back soon, an Easy after a longer gap. Over time each kana settles into a review rhythm that matches how well you know it.
Should I learn hiragana or katakana first?
Most learners start with hiragana, since it is used for native Japanese words and grammar, then move on to katakana for loanwords and names. You can study either script here — pick the hiragana or katakana decks and work through them a row at a time.
How are these different from the vocabulary decks?
Character decks drill the individual kana characters themselves. The vocabulary decks drill whole Japanese words. Both use the same handwriting and spaced-repetition engine, so once you know the kana you can move straight on to building words.