All 46 basic hiragana, one animated video per row, with the stroke count for every letter.
Hiragana has 46 basic characters, and each one is written in a fixed order of strokes. This page shows all of them as short animated videos, one row of the chart at a time, with the stroke count for every kana.
Write hiragana from top to bottom and from left to right. Each basic kana takes between 1 and 4 strokes: 11 kana take 1, 17 kana take 2, 13 kana take 3, 5 kana take 4. Pick a row below to watch the exact order.
The number in brackets is the stroke count.
| Row | Kana (strokes) |
|---|---|
| A row (vowels) | あ (3), い (2), う (2), え (2), お (3) |
| K row | か (3), き (4), く (1), け (3), こ (2) |
| S row | さ (3), し (1), す (2), せ (3), そ (1) |
| T row | た (4), ち (2), つ (1), て (1), と (2) |
| N row | な (4), に (3), ぬ (2), ね (2), の (1) |
| H row | は (3), ひ (1), ふ (4), へ (1), ほ (4) |
| M row | ま (3), み (2), む (3), め (2), も (3) |
| Y row (three kana) | や (3), ゆ (2), よ (2) |
| R row | ら (2), り (2), る (1), れ (2), ろ (1) |
| W row and ん | わ (2), を (3), ん (1) |
The videos below show the exceptions in motion, which is quicker to learn than a list.
These five are the vowels. Every other row in the chart pairs a consonant with them.
| Kana | Romaji | Strokes |
|---|---|---|
| あ | a | 3 |
| い | i | 2 |
| う | u | 2 |
| え | e | 2 |
| お | o | 3 |
Look-alikes: あ and お are easy to mix up: both have a loop, so check the number of strokes (3 each) and where the first stroke starts.
く is the shortest kana in the row at one stroke; き is the longest at four. Adding ゛ turns this row into が ぎ ぐ げ ご.
| Kana | Romaji | Strokes |
|---|---|---|
| か | ka | 3 |
| き | ki | 4 |
| く | ku | 1 |
| け | ke | 3 |
| こ | ko | 2 |
Look-alikes: き is often confused with さ from the next row. Count the strokes: き has 4, さ has 3.
し is read shi, not si. し and そ are each a single stroke.
| Kana | Romaji | Strokes |
|---|---|---|
| さ | sa | 3 |
| し | shi | 1 |
| す | su | 2 |
| せ | se | 3 |
| そ | so | 1 |
Look-alikes: さ and き look alike in print. See the K row for the stroke count that separates them.
ち is read chi and つ is read tsu. つ and て are single strokes.
| Kana | Romaji | Strokes |
|---|---|---|
| た | ta | 4 |
| ち | chi | 2 |
| つ | tsu | 1 |
| て | te | 1 |
| と | to | 2 |
Look-alikes: た and な both take 4 strokes and look similar at a glance. Compare them side by side in the videos.
の is a single stroke and ぬ and ね are two.
| Kana | Romaji | Strokes |
|---|---|---|
| な | na | 4 |
| に | ni | 3 |
| ぬ | nu | 2 |
| ね | ne | 2 |
| の | no | 1 |
Look-alikes: ぬ and め (M row) are the classic look-alike pair. ね also resembles れ and わ, so learn them together.
ふ is read fu. As particles, は is read wa and へ is read e, though you write them as shown.
| Kana | Romaji | Strokes |
|---|---|---|
| は | ha | 3 |
| ひ | hi | 1 |
| ふ | fu | 4 |
| へ | he | 1 |
| ほ | ho | 4 |
Look-alikes: は and ほ differ by one stroke: は has 3, ほ has 4.
Three of the five (ま, む, も) take 3 strokes; み and め take 2.
| Kana | Romaji | Strokes |
|---|---|---|
| ま | ma | 3 |
| み | mi | 2 |
| む | mu | 3 |
| め | me | 2 |
| も | mo | 3 |
Look-alikes: め and ぬ (N row) look alike. め has no extra loop at the end.
This row has only three kana. In the modern chart the yi and ye slots are empty. Written small (ゃ ゅ ょ), these three combine with other kana, as in きゃ.
| Kana | Romaji | Strokes |
|---|---|---|
| や | ya | 3 |
| ゆ | yu | 2 |
| よ | yo | 2 |
Look-alikes: や takes 3 strokes, while ゆ and よ take 2.
The Japanese r is a quick single tap of the tongue, somewhere between English r, l and d.
| Kana | Romaji | Strokes |
|---|---|---|
| ら | ra | 2 |
| り | ri | 2 |
| る | ru | 1 |
| れ | re | 2 |
| ろ | ro | 1 |
Look-alikes: る and ろ are the pair to learn together: る ends in a loop and ろ does not. れ also resembles ね and わ.
を is pronounced o and is used almost only as the object marker. ん is the one kana that is a consonant on its own.
| Kana | Romaji | Strokes |
|---|---|---|
| わ | wa | 2 |
| を | wo | 3 |
| ん | n | 1 |
Look-alikes: わ, れ and ね look alike and all three take 2 strokes, so compare them side by side in the videos.
The Kana Charts screen plays the same animation for every kana, with Replay, Step and Slow controls. Trace and Write modes (beta) let you draw each kana and get every stroke checked.
See Kana ChallengeNeed katakana too? The kana guide links a printable katakana stroke order sheet in its printable practice section.
Prefer YouTube? Watch all ten rows in order as a playlist.
Related reading: Hiragana vs. Katakana: When to Use Which, Learn Hiragana and Katakana and Japanese Kana Challenge: Learn Hiragana and Katakana.
Stroke order data: KanjiVG, kanjivg.tagaini.net, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0.
Most kana follow the same rules as other Japanese writing: strokes go from top to bottom and from left to right, and when strokes cross, the horizontal stroke usually comes before the vertical one. The row sections on this page show the exact order for each of the 46 basic hiragana, one letter at a time.
Each basic hiragana takes between 1 and 4 strokes. In this chart, 1 stroke: く, し, そ, つ, て, の, ひ, へ, る, ろ, ん; 2 strokes: い, う, え, こ, す, ち, と, ぬ, ね, み, め, ゆ, よ, ら, り, れ, わ; 3 strokes: あ, お, か, け, さ, せ, に, は, ま, む, も, や, を; 4 strokes: き, た, な, ふ, ほ.
Printed fonts often join strokes that handwriting keeps separate, for example in さ, き and ふ. The counts on this page follow the standard handwriting order from the KanjiVG data set.
Kana Challenge has a Kana Charts screen where you tap any kana on the basic chart to watch its strokes being drawn in order, with a replay, a step button and a slow mode. The videos on this page were recorded from that screen.