How stroke order works
Every kanji and kana character has a standard stroke order — a set order and direction for drawing each line. Two simple rules cover most cases: write top to bottom and left to right. Horizontal strokes usually come before crossing vertical ones, an enclosing box is closed last, and a character that cuts straight through the middle is often written last. Following the standard order is what makes a character look balanced and lets you eventually write fast, flowing handwriting.
Start with the two kana syllabaries — the 46 hiragana and 46 katakana are the building blocks of written Japanese — then work through the kanji grade by grade, from the 80 characters taught in grade 1 up to the rarer secondary-school kanji. Watch each character animate, step through it slowly, then head to the Kanji Practice Sheets to print a worksheet and write it by hand.
Frequently asked questions
What is stroke order and why does it matter?
Stroke order (筆順, hitsujun) is the fixed sequence and direction in which the strokes of a kanji or kana character are written. It matters because writing in the correct order makes the character come out balanced and legible, lets you write quickly and connect strokes naturally, and is the basis for how handwriting recognition and dictionaries work. Japanese schools teach a standard order for every character, and these animations follow that standard.
Which characters are covered here?
This tool animates all 2,136 jōyō kanji — the full set of “regular-use” kanji taught in Japanese schools — grouped by the grade they are introduced in (grades 1 to 6 of elementary school, then secondary school), plus every basic character in both kana syllabaries: 46 hiragana and 46 katakana. That covers everything from the first characters a learner meets to the rarest jōyō kanji.
How do I use the animation?
Open any character and press Play to watch it drawn stroke by stroke in the correct order. You can pause and reset, step forward and back one stroke at a time to practice at your own pace, switch the speed between 0.5×, 1× and 2×, and toggle stroke numbers to see exactly where each stroke begins. Then use “Practice writing this character” to print a tracing worksheet and write it yourself.
Can I search by English meaning?
Yes. Type an English word such as “water”, “mountain” or “love” to find matching kanji by their KANJIDIC2 meaning, or type the character itself (e.g. 水) or a kana romaji (e.g. “ka”). The grade groupings stay in place so you can also just browse by school year.
Related tools
- Browse by radical — all jōyō kanji grouped by their classifying radical (部首).
- Browse by stroke count — all jōyō kanji grouped by how many strokes they take.
- Kanji Practice Sheets — printable tracing worksheets for kanji and kana.
- Furigana Generator — add reading hints (furigana) to any Japanese text.
- Kanji & Kana to Romaji — convert Japanese text to Hepburn romaji.
- 漢字の書き順・読み方 — the same tool on the Japanese site, with readings, radicals and example words.