Hiragana and katakana are the two Japanese syllabaries — the foundation of reading and writing. You can learn both from scratch here: see the stroke order, hear how each character is pronounced, and practise writing first by tracing and then from memory. Start with the 46 basic gojūon characters, then switch on the voiced marks (dakuten/handakuten) and diphthongs (yōon) to cover the full set.
You can write kana right in the browser — no sign-up needed. On a phone or tablet, draw each character with your finger or a stylus (Apple Pencil, S Pen, or any active pen); on a computer, use the mouse or trackpad. The app checks your strokes and their order, so you see mistakes immediately and build the correct writing muscle memory.
Once the characters feel a little familiar, lock them in with two review modes. Flashcards show a kana on one side and its romaji reading on the other — flip the card and test yourself at your own pace. The quiz is a fast multiple-choice test: recognise kana by their reading and vice versa until recall becomes automatic. Both modes use exactly the set shown in the table, so you can drill just the basics or everything at once, including voiced kana and diphthongs.
Japanese pronunciation is written in the Latin alphabet (rōmaji) two main ways: Hepburn — used worldwide, and what KanjiDraw uses — and Kunrei-shiki, Japan's official standard. They spell some syllables differently, so the same word can appear in more than one form: for example すし is sushi in Hepburn but susi in Kunrei-shiki.
The biggest differences are in the さ, た and は rows and the particle を:
| Kana | Hepburn | Kunrei-shiki |
|---|---|---|
| し | shi | si |
| ち | chi | ti |
| つ | tsu | tu |
| じ | ji | zi |
| ふ | fu | hu |
| を | o | wo |
| しゃ | sha | sya |
| ちゃ | cha | tya |
| じゃ | ja | zya |
| ん | n / m | n |
KanjiDraw's flashcards and audio use Hepburn rōmaji — it's closest to how the sounds are actually pronounced and the most widely recognised. Kunrei-shiki is still worth knowing: it's more regular (it maps cleanly onto the kana grid) and you'll meet it in Japanese schoolbooks and official documents.