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Japanese Hiragana & Katakana for Beginners: First Steps to Mastering the Japanese Writing System
The method that's helped thousands in the U.S. and Japan learn Japanese successfully.
The Japanese language has two basic writing systems, hiragana and katakana, in addition to the one that uses Chinese characters or Kanji. This handy book teaches you a new mnemonics–based method to read and write the basic 92 hiragana and katakana characters. Along with its sister book: Japanese Kanji for Beginners it provides a complete introduction to written Japanese. Memorable picture mnemonics help you to learn the characters by associating their shapes and sounds with combinations of images and English words already familiar to you. Clear examples and entertaining exercises offer opportunities to read, write, use and practice all 46 basic hiragana and 46 basic katakana characters, plus the remaining kana that stand for more complex sounds. Polish your knowledge with word searches, crossword puzzles, fill–in–the–blanks, timed recognition quizzes, and other interesting activities. The downloadable audio allows you to print out your own flash cards (featuring the same mnemonic images taught in the book) to help you review and practice, even while you're on the go.
The Japanese language has two basic writing systems, hiragana and katakana, in addition to the one that uses Chinese characters or Kanji. This handy book teaches you a new mnemonics–based method to read and write the basic 92 hiragana and katakana characters. Along with its sister book: Japanese Kanji for Beginners it provides a complete introduction to written Japanese. Memorable picture mnemonics help you to learn the characters by associating their shapes and sounds with combinations of images and English words already familiar to you. Clear examples and entertaining exercises offer opportunities to read, write, use and practice all 46 basic hiragana and 46 basic katakana characters, plus the remaining kana that stand for more complex sounds. Polish your knowledge with word searches, crossword puzzles, fill–in–the–blanks, timed recognition quizzes, and other interesting activities. The downloadable audio allows you to print out your own flash cards (featuring the same mnemonic images taught in the book) to help you review and practice, even while you're on the go.
434 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 15, 2007
200 people are currently reading
441 people want to read
About the author
Timothy G. Stout
9 books7 followersTimothy G. Stout, Ph.D., lived in Japan for 20 years, and has taught Japanese language in public and private schools in the United States and Japan for 14 years. While working at the American School in Japan he conducted original research on the use of keyword mnemonics in the instruction of Japanese. Stout has an M.A. in Japanese Pedagogy from Columbia University and a B.A. in Japanese Teaching from Brigham Young University. He currently teaches Japanese at Waterford School in Utah, where he lives with his wife and five children. Stout is the author of Japanese Hiragana for Beginners, Japanese Katakana for Beginners, Tuttle Japanese for Kids Flash Cards, and More Japanese for Kids Flash Cards, all of which are available from Tuttle.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
August 21, 2018
I give ✰✰✰✰✰ cause this was very useful but some pictures were wrong as pronunciation. However, I am Italian so for us, Italians, japanese is easiest and I didn't need them.
I suggest you to buy it so you can make the exercises but I suggest you also to buy some 1cm notebooks and also a Genkouyoushi to write more. I know online they say 50-100 times but more you write more your hand learns how to make them perfect.
I looked back to my first hiragana and those were horrible. Now those are almost perfect.
I wanna suggest you also another method. 1 page front and back for every hiragana/katakana. Front the character you have to learn and back all characters you learnt so far. Yes, it is long but it pays cause practice make perfect.
I suggest you to buy it so you can make the exercises but I suggest you also to buy some 1cm notebooks and also a Genkouyoushi to write more. I know online they say 50-100 times but more you write more your hand learns how to make them perfect.
I looked back to my first hiragana and those were horrible. Now those are almost perfect.
I wanna suggest you also another method. 1 page front and back for every hiragana/katakana. Front the character you have to learn and back all characters you learnt so far. Yes, it is long but it pays cause practice make perfect.
April 11, 2017
Not bad, not bad at all, actually it's quite good! Bought the soft copy on my Kindle from Amazon for 3 bucks. The only problem I have with the examples given in the book is that sometimes I thought in both English and Vietnamese so the tips did not work on me as effectively as they could have and I also forgot what the hell I was trying to memorise - so it's my fault, not the author's, but there are many, many excellent tips! Without this book, my struggle with with these characters would have been much worse. Highly recommend!
June 18, 2018
This is a long overdue review. I used this book when I picked up Japanese in college to memorize the alphabet for my lessons. I am a slow learner, but professors want to zip through the alphabet so I purchased this book to push myself outside of a classroom to retain this information. I can't recommend this handbook enough.
For each of the 46 hirigana characters you will trace it eight times, write it freehand sixteen times, then write it six more times in simple vocabulary words such as aka (red), i i (good), etc. Next, you will have reading practice to solidify what you've learned so far and move on to the 58 additional sounds and their rules. This covers things such as long vowels, the small tsu, tenten and maru, and particles. Section three is reading and writing practice. And repeat once you start Katakana.
I left this book with the ability to jump into Japanese lessons without relying on romaji, and sometimes without even relying on English. Definitely worth a look if you're a slow learner in a college setting, or even looking to self-teach! This book will be your best friend.
For each of the 46 hirigana characters you will trace it eight times, write it freehand sixteen times, then write it six more times in simple vocabulary words such as aka (red), i i (good), etc. Next, you will have reading practice to solidify what you've learned so far and move on to the 58 additional sounds and their rules. This covers things such as long vowels, the small tsu, tenten and maru, and particles. Section three is reading and writing practice. And repeat once you start Katakana.
I left this book with the ability to jump into Japanese lessons without relying on romaji, and sometimes without even relying on English. Definitely worth a look if you're a slow learner in a college setting, or even looking to self-teach! This book will be your best friend.
April 23, 2018
I've always fancied Japanese language and wanted since ever to master it. I've enrolled several times in courses and I have decent fluency however, I've never thought of learning the very basics of the Japanese language; Hiragana & Katakana and thanks to this book I did and now I can read text(s) which was once a mystery to me.
May 25, 2013
This book is very useful for writing practice if you are already familiar with the syllabaries. However, there are some mistakes in the exercises and couple other things that suggest a better editor is needed.
August 13, 2019
Excellent and fun method!
December 5, 2017
This book incorporates the mnemonic method to help you learn and memorize katakana and hiragana characters more easily. It also features a lot of helpful writing exercises for you to get the know-how of writing the characters. There are also the flashcards which you can carry with you anywhere to help you learn new Japanese vocabularies on the go. What is more exciting is, this book also comes with a CD-ROM. The CD-ROM contains more flashcards and exercises which can be printed out at your own ease. If you are looking for a starting point in learning Japanese, I would definitely recommend you to buy this book to accompany your study.
May 7, 2018
Fantastic book! It's very helpful for learning to write and read basic kana! My favourite part of this book is that they show the stroke order. There are a lot of different exercises and spaces for rewriting the characters to slam it into your head. The pictures didn't really work for me, but mnemonic pictures have never really worked with me so that's on me, not on the book. It also includes a DVD and flash cards to supplement it and both are very helpful.
I ended up using this one to practice writing and reading and bought a textbook to go more into detail and learn about grammar, uses, and kanji. I'm very happy to say I know MUCH more than I did when I first started.
I ended up using this one to practice writing and reading and bought a textbook to go more into detail and learn about grammar, uses, and kanji. I'm very happy to say I know MUCH more than I did when I first started.
February 2, 2021
I gave it 4 stars because some of the mnemonics didn’t make sense to me. I looked online to find more mnemonics of certain kanas, but that’s just me.
One thing I recommend is to get a practice workbook to repeat several times the same symbol, since this book have a few spaces per page to practice. I bought my practice workbooks on Amazon for very cheap.
Overall, I would recommend this book to any beginner.
Edit to add: it comes with a CD-ROM that I never used, can’t comment on that.
One thing I recommend is to get a practice workbook to repeat several times the same symbol, since this book have a few spaces per page to practice. I bought my practice workbooks on Amazon for very cheap.
Overall, I would recommend this book to any beginner.
Edit to add: it comes with a CD-ROM that I never used, can’t comment on that.
July 23, 2023
It was very useful in developing my Japanese hiragana and katakana writing skills. However, the method used wasn't especially great several of the sounds and pictures used to remember each character didn't really make sense. The book provided a range of different activities that assist in developing the hiragana and katakana characters. I suggest it to anyone who is in a similar situation, trying to learn Hiragana and Katakana but finding it difficult.
June 3, 2017
Very well organized, with plenty of writing instruction, practice, and exercises. I very much appreciated the picture mnemonics and feel like I can successfully read and write Hiragana and Katakana characters in only a matter of weeks.
December 31, 2017
A really fantastic resource for learning hiragana and katakana! The drawings helped me remember several of the kana. I started getting into other materials halfway through the book, which is why it took me so long to get through. But highly recommend it.
February 9, 2018
Excellent workbook to learn Hirigana and Katakana. Some areas to write are tiny but that forces you to have a good mastery of writing each of the characters.
October 22, 2019
This book is great if you want to learn Hiragana and katakana symbols and their sounds. The book comes with external content on a CD-ROM disk!
December 11, 2019
Very useful text book
December 13, 2019
This book is perfect for beginners learning the Hiragana and Katakana writing systems. There are pictures that help you remember the shapes which worked well for my brain.
July 12, 2020
Fast learning with mnemonic devices. Great quizzes along the way to test retention.
July 30, 2021
This was an excellent book that greatly helped me improve my written かな and the ability to recall them more quickly.
November 10, 2023
Really good for learning to read and write, I found it quite therapeutic!
December 8, 2024
Very well structured! Easy to practice with and understand :)
August 4, 2025
good book overall, if you want to rush it, just do flashcard
May 20, 2020
A nice supplement to the Japanese classes that I have been taking. However the picture mneumonics should only be used if you’re really struggling to remember the characters. Could be a bit misleading
November 20, 2013
For those who are familiar with Tuttle publishing you'll know that all their study materials are very high quality. This book is no exception. It's also an amazing deal--It's incredibly cheap for how much you get! This workbook comes with a CD that has both Hiragana and Katakana flash cards, extra writing practice, quizzes, and charts for you to fill out.
The book itself is really nicely laid out. The spaces for you to write in are practice Kana squares meaning they aren't just empty lines, but segmented squares so you can practice properly balancing the Kana easier. At the end of a section they also include a brilliant reading practice section. On the left hand of the page they type all/most of the words you just practiced writing and on the write side of the page is the Romaji and translation. They tell you to fold the page over so you can only see the Kana and they practice reading and memorizing the words. It's a super easy and makes for great practice. Not only does this book have the plain-old traditional writing practice, it also includes connect-the-dot games, crossword puzzles and more to help make this sort of repetitive writing practice more fun.
My only gripe is with the mnemonics. The authors have helpfully included little images to help you remember the shape of the kana--for example a Katakana "ha" is a hawks' wings, that sort of thing. This is a great idea and is an idea that has helped me learn the Kana easier, and is especially useful when I am tired and feeling frazzled--I can say the mnemonic to myself and remember the Keasily. However, these particular images are...overly complicated. A lot of the time, they AREN'T actually helpful because they are way too weirdly detailed. Like the Katakana "So" is almost a short story! It's about how how a kid (baby goat) got an eye poked out and then the next day kids made fun of him and he said "So?" back to them. That's like, WAY too complicated to be helpful! White Rabbit has a really helpful set of mnemonic based flash cards that are really simple and easy, and so does Kana-Pict-o-Graphix. Other than that though, this is probably my favourite Kana Practice book so far.
Also, there are a few typos in here, but only like 3 or so and are very minor. They aren't of the sort that can be confusing or inhibiting to language acquisition.
The book itself is really nicely laid out. The spaces for you to write in are practice Kana squares meaning they aren't just empty lines, but segmented squares so you can practice properly balancing the Kana easier. At the end of a section they also include a brilliant reading practice section. On the left hand of the page they type all/most of the words you just practiced writing and on the write side of the page is the Romaji and translation. They tell you to fold the page over so you can only see the Kana and they practice reading and memorizing the words. It's a super easy and makes for great practice. Not only does this book have the plain-old traditional writing practice, it also includes connect-the-dot games, crossword puzzles and more to help make this sort of repetitive writing practice more fun.
My only gripe is with the mnemonics. The authors have helpfully included little images to help you remember the shape of the kana--for example a Katakana "ha" is a hawks' wings, that sort of thing. This is a great idea and is an idea that has helped me learn the Kana easier, and is especially useful when I am tired and feeling frazzled--I can say the mnemonic to myself and remember the Keasily. However, these particular images are...overly complicated. A lot of the time, they AREN'T actually helpful because they are way too weirdly detailed. Like the Katakana "So" is almost a short story! It's about how how a kid (baby goat) got an eye poked out and then the next day kids made fun of him and he said "So?" back to them. That's like, WAY too complicated to be helpful! White Rabbit has a really helpful set of mnemonic based flash cards that are really simple and easy, and so does Kana-Pict-o-Graphix. Other than that though, this is probably my favourite Kana Practice book so far.
Also, there are a few typos in here, but only like 3 or so and are very minor. They aren't of the sort that can be confusing or inhibiting to language acquisition.
November 6, 2015
I am proud to announce that …
I can read and write Hiragana and Katakana!. Something that I considered impossible become a reality with this amazing book. It made learning so easy. It was like learning how to draw. The book has many activities at the end of the lesson, and each one of them was not only helpful, but so much fun to do them. Now, every time I watch animes or TV shows that have something written on screen, I enjoy reading them out loud. Although it is more like this: “Ko… re…o…i…i…shi…de…su…” (like a child would read it). But nevertheless!
It took me around 2 months, but it can be learned in less time. Once I learned Hiragana, Katakana was a lot easier to remember. My two only concerns are: how would I know when to write in Hiragana and when in Katakana? I know that Katakana is used for transcriptions of foreign words, but I’ve seen that both kanas are used in onomatopoeia. Or Japanese names. For example, I know that Haruka is written in Hiragana, but Sunako is written in Katakana. (?)
My other problem is to tell the character シ (tsu) from ツ (shi), and ソ (so) from ン (n) – I guess I just need more practice.
I noticed that some characters are a bit different in the daily use than from how it is in the book, like the Hiragana for “sa”, for “ki”and for “hu”, to name a few. The images were very helpful; sometimes if I could not remember how to write a character, I turned mentally to the image.
If I have to vote today for my Best Books Read in 2014, this treasure would be in my Top 5, without a doubt.
I can read and write Hiragana and Katakana!. Something that I considered impossible become a reality with this amazing book. It made learning so easy. It was like learning how to draw. The book has many activities at the end of the lesson, and each one of them was not only helpful, but so much fun to do them. Now, every time I watch animes or TV shows that have something written on screen, I enjoy reading them out loud. Although it is more like this: “Ko… re…o…i…i…shi…de…su…” (like a child would read it). But nevertheless!
It took me around 2 months, but it can be learned in less time. Once I learned Hiragana, Katakana was a lot easier to remember. My two only concerns are: how would I know when to write in Hiragana and when in Katakana? I know that Katakana is used for transcriptions of foreign words, but I’ve seen that both kanas are used in onomatopoeia. Or Japanese names. For example, I know that Haruka is written in Hiragana, but Sunako is written in Katakana. (?)
My other problem is to tell the character シ (tsu) from ツ (shi), and ソ (so) from ン (n) – I guess I just need more practice.
I noticed that some characters are a bit different in the daily use than from how it is in the book, like the Hiragana for “sa”, for “ki”and for “hu”, to name a few. The images were very helpful; sometimes if I could not remember how to write a character, I turned mentally to the image.
If I have to vote today for my Best Books Read in 2014, this treasure would be in my Top 5, without a doubt.
May 5, 2012
This is a fantastic book for learning the Hiragana and Katakana characters.
I got it during a 7 week trip in Tokyo (sadly I got it toward the end of the trip rather than the beginning). Within a couple of days of starting I was sounding out most Hiragana and Katakana words that I saw on various advertisements and signs.
Mnemonics is absolutely the way to go when remembering stuff like this, and most of the mnemonics used in this book are great and very memorable. A few don't stick quite as well, and I find the Katakana characters harder to remember than Hiragana, I think because they're simpler and harder to associate with an image in your mind.
I've only worked on reading so far and not writing, but the guides and exercises in the book for writing look very good.
The one quibble I have is that some of the characters are printed in a form that doesn't quite match what you see in the real world, making them a bit harder to recognize, especially when stylized fonts are used. The biggest example of this is Hiragana "ri". In the book it's written as two distinct strokes, with a gap in the middle. But on real world signs in Tokyo, it's almost always written as a single continuous stroke.
I got it during a 7 week trip in Tokyo (sadly I got it toward the end of the trip rather than the beginning). Within a couple of days of starting I was sounding out most Hiragana and Katakana words that I saw on various advertisements and signs.
Mnemonics is absolutely the way to go when remembering stuff like this, and most of the mnemonics used in this book are great and very memorable. A few don't stick quite as well, and I find the Katakana characters harder to remember than Hiragana, I think because they're simpler and harder to associate with an image in your mind.
I've only worked on reading so far and not writing, but the guides and exercises in the book for writing look very good.
The one quibble I have is that some of the characters are printed in a form that doesn't quite match what you see in the real world, making them a bit harder to recognize, especially when stylized fonts are used. The biggest example of this is Hiragana "ri". In the book it's written as two distinct strokes, with a gap in the middle. But on real world signs in Tokyo, it's almost always written as a single continuous stroke.
August 5, 2016
I really enjoyed using Timothy G. Stout’s “Japanese Hiragana & Katakana for Beginners”. It has successfully taught me both the hiragana and katakana fairly quick. I also appreciated the printable study cards that come included in this book. They were very helpful. Every character was explained in detail and you had plenty of space in the book to practice them as well – even though I prefer to use an extra sheet of paper and keep my books neat. The only negative thing that I noticed was that the further I got into the book the less creative the pictures and their statements got. In addition, the character “tsu” in the katakana section was described in a matter that was very confusing and did more harm than good.
Overall, I loved this book and it helped me achieve my goal. However, I am not sure how good this book is in comparison to other Japanese learning books since this was my first attempt of learning the language.
Overall, I loved this book and it helped me achieve my goal. However, I am not sure how good this book is in comparison to other Japanese learning books since this was my first attempt of learning the language.
January 30, 2016
I can read and write hiragana and katakana because of this book! The set up and visuals of this book makes learning fun and easy!
While I also enjoyed the few grammar notes and practice activities with vocabulary throughout this book, I would not say this is a good book to learn grammar or vocabulary. Rather, this serves as a fantastic way to simply read and write using the hiragana and katakana writing systems and those activities help build your knowledge of those systems.
Highly recommend!
While I also enjoyed the few grammar notes and practice activities with vocabulary throughout this book, I would not say this is a good book to learn grammar or vocabulary. Rather, this serves as a fantastic way to simply read and write using the hiragana and katakana writing systems and those activities help build your knowledge of those systems.
Highly recommend!
April 17, 2016
Excellent book for learning to read AND write the Japanese writing systems, Hiragana and Katakana. Learning was easy and fun, the included CD helps also.
I really like the exercises at the end of each writing systems, they were important to me.
I really like the exercises at the end of each writing systems, they were important to me.
September 30, 2021
Il libro più bello per imparare i due alfabeti sillabici giapponesi.
Gli esempi visivi a volte servono davvero molto a ricordare bene i vari caratteri.
Coadiuvando questo libro con delle applicazioni per android ho imparato in pochissimo tempo Hiragana e Katakana!
やった！！
Gli esempi visivi a volte servono davvero molto a ricordare bene i vari caratteri.
Coadiuvando questo libro con delle applicazioni per android ho imparato in pochissimo tempo Hiragana e Katakana!
やった！！
March 31, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews