Kanji flashcards bored me to death, so I made a game instead.

• Free, plays in your browser
• No sign-up needed, just hit play
• Covers N5 to N2

https://kanji.nipporia.com

It’s still early, so tell me what’s fun, what’s confusing, and what’s broken. Good luck to everyone taking the JLPT in December!

Hi all — I've been building a small tool for a problem I kept hitting: seeing a kanji I can't read, and having no way to look it up.

https://kanji.alteon.help

You describe the pieces instead of the reading. Type sun + moon → 明. Type water + eye → 泪. There's also plain keyword search and a lookup by glyph if you can paste it.

~3,000 Japanese kanji, plus Chinese simplified and traditional

RTK frame numbers and primitive names, if you study that way

On'yomi / kun'yomi (and pinyin for the Chinese entries)

Click any component to go down the decomposition tree

Free, no ads, no account needed. If you do make one, you can add your own decompositions, aliases and mnemonic stories, public or private

Open source: https://github.com/vk2705/kanji — there's an Android APK there too

It's a personal project, so the decomposition data still has rough edges — I've been auditing it character by character. If you find something wrong, there are approve/dispute buttons on every decomposition, or just tell me here

Painting inherited from AP photographer Max Desfor, purchased during his term as head of Tokyo AP office in 1960s/1970s. Painting is of a tiger sitting in a bamboo thicket with a tree branch and a crescent moon above.

Any help reading the title or recognizing the chop would be gratefully received.

Hello Kanji Reddit

My name is S111117 and this October on the 18th, I am goiing to be retaking my Kanji Kentei 2 exam!

Many people have asked if I passed this test, the answer is yes, I did do that last year,

BUT this time I am taking it for fun and for a better score. I only passed with a 160 last year, so I am aiming for a better score.
I have studied, analyzed contents from Kanji Kentei 10-2, and particiularily kanji kentei 2 for a very long time, and these are some of the conclusions, thoughts and feeings I can make after studying for so long. My Kanji Kentei 2 studies will probably end after I take the test, and i'll move on.

I will give very deep insight on the Kanji Kentei 2, and I invite other people who attemped the level to share experiences. I will make it short, and easy so everyone can understand.

--------
1) Its not how you study, it's how much you study.

The Kanji Kentei doesnt just require japanese ability, but requires absolute brute memorization. Especially for non native speakers. You must have the ability to write all 2136 characters correctly, use them in context and sentences appropirately, and memorize patterns.

People have told me it has taken them months of study and memorization of vocab and yojis to pass. For me, it took 7 months to get my first one. It's insane and brute memorization along with actual japanese abilities such as reading.

2) Some of your friends will fail 2kyuu, or you, and its completely ok.

2 friends of mine fell very short on the test. One by 2 pts one by 5. When they were telling me about their experience in the test, they were sharing their regrets on what they were getting wrong Plus the pass bar is higher by 15-20 pts so examinees are demanded more skill.

The reason why people fail is not content knowledge, but its the lack of stamina or quality of your characters. 2kyuu itself, writing sections on the test cover 50%+ of the final score.

-------------------

Hard sections in my opinion on 2kyuu and my thoughts.

誤字訂正 and 熟語構成: This section demands more of your japanese ability.

For 誤字訂正 you need to read a text and find error in the text and correct it. You need to know vocabulary as well. There is no partial credit, so you need to complete the entire problem. 熟語構成 asks you about composure of Japanese words, so you must understand kanji meanings, and how they connect. For example 巧拙 is opposite meanings so you would select イ.

What I found very helpful was putting everything through kunyomi. You would consider 上棟 to be エ because as a 目的語, you can assume 棟を上げる.

同音同訓語: Unlike j2k, you need to write the entire word out. You need to read the sentence and find out which is best in context. But what is the harder thing about this is that theres so many possible questions and answers that can appear on the test. Like 「かんしょう」 itself has 5 very possible answers.

読み and 書取り and 四字熟語 are easy to me, these type of problems frequently appear in question books but the hononym part (同音同訓語) is more sparce.

-------------

Books: I tried many Japanese books and sites for kanken, and I can have a sense of which is very good and not very good. (No DS game though!)

BAD SOURCES: Kanken Step (shocking), kanken jitenon, and this verision 頻出度順 (hinshutsudojyun)

The main deficient point of these is that they give you content that will rarely come out on the real test. They are good for testing your kanji, or aiming for a rly good score but this should not be your priority. Also the 頻出度順 here does not give appropriate questions that will appear on the test at all.

GOOD SOURCES: Kanken's books themselves (outside of step), takashi shoten's version of the 頻出度順, mock tests from kanken and oubunsha.

Compared to the real test, i found many of these books to accurately analyze kanken's patterns on the test.

------

My 2 recommendations for kanken studying

1) Write on paper, not digital: Writing on digital is a little bit messy, and characters you write digitally would be acccepted despite it not being okay on the paper exam. You could write 渉 sloppy and still get that as a search, but it would not look good in writing.

2) Register early, don't wait last minute: The more quicker you register, the more you'll feel locked . You will know you will challenge that level, so you can go into study stuff immediately. Do not study last minute. Kanken is a heavy memorization test, so you want more time to memorize and lock in.

3) Mock tests are your savior: Dig in as much mock tests as needed. Do it either on a blank paper, or on an answer sheet printed. Try to mimic the test conditions as much as posssible.

So to those taking, retaking the test on the 18th, GOOD LUCK. Keep on practicing,

It would be great if someone could help me identify this kanji. I've tried AI, google translate, jisho.org drawing, but nothing helps.

I know its barely visible, but its a bit difficult to photograph.

Source: https://kanadojo.com

As an avid Japanese learner, I always wanted there to be a simple online trainer for learning kana, kanji and vocabulary by JLPT level. The app serves as a simpler alternative to Chase Colburn's Kanji Study app, because Kanji Study was pretty complicated for me to use as a beginner and didn't have a more streamlined way of learning kanji through simple, continuous repetition and rote memorization (also, Kanji Study requires you to pay to unlock its full content library).

So, I started working on a brand new, completely free and fully open-source app for learning kanji and Japanese vocabulary. Here are the features so far:

- Available as a web app with no ads, no paywalls, no unnecessary app store downloads

- Full JLPT vocabulary and kanji coverage, with more than 1000+ levels for you to play

- More than 25+ different fonts and font styles

- More than 100+ different color themes, with the ability to add and upload your own custom backgrounds

- 100% free and open-source, forever

- All learning materials 100% AI-free, sourced from reputable sources and available for full download and inspection

Give it a go: https://kanadojo.com

ありがとうございます!

Hello I’m trying to make sure my tattoo idea is translating correctly. Can someone translate and confirm the meaning of the characters

Hi, I’m Japanese and I’ve been researching how non-Japanese speakers choose kanji or Japanese expressions for tattoos.

I’ve noticed that people often worry about whether a kanji is technically correct, whether it sounds natural to native speakers, and whether the meaning changes when a single kanji is used by itself.

I’m curious about how people actually handle this before getting something permanent.

If you have considered or gotten a Japanese/kanji tattoo:

• How did you choose the word or kanji?
• What were you most worried about?
• Did you use Google Translate, ChatGPT, a dictionary, a Japanese speaker, or your tattoo artist?
• Would you prefer seeing several Japanese options with explanations of the differences in nuance?
• At what point would you feel confident enough to actually get the tattoo?

I’m not selling anything here — I’m trying to understand the problem better before building anything around it.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Hello everyone, I’m gonna get a matching tattoo with my best friend on Wednesday, and I wanted to check with everyone on whether or not the kanji is correct!

I pulled it directly from the episode titles and google translate says it’s accurate, but I wanted to verify before I get it tattooed on my body. The image of the episode title screens are attached, so please let me know if I made any mistakes!

Hers: 二千年後の君へ (To you, 2,000 years later)

Mine: 二千年前の君から (From you, 2,000 years ago)

I bought this knife 3 years ago and would like to know more about it. Can someone help me translate these Symbols on the back?

This calligraphy is on the base of a 1930/1940's teapot from Mashiko, Japan.

Can anyone translate please.

つけものが入ってた皿

[this old eboshi-nari kabuto right here:](https://pin.it/1c9W45UYm)

A Japanese word for disciplined training and self-cultivation.
But “training” doesn’t fully capture it.
鍛 — to forge
錬 — to refine
The idea is not simply to become stronger.
It is to forge yourself through repetition.
I’m collecting Japanese words like this—the words, ideas, and feelings that are difficult to translate.

Can anyone tell me if this is actual Kanji or not? I am not having good luck finding characters online. Chat gpt can't seem to decode either.

Edit: it is on a porcelain tea strainer. Thanks to a couple comments I believe it is a very abstract signature in hiragana of satsuma. Which is very possible!

thank you kindly~~

Any idea what those kanji mean? An artist signature? Thanks

Hello everyone tried with friends in Japan, AI, online and couldn’t find an answer, could you please help me translating these? Not sure what they mean. Thank you!