I started to study Japanese letters for the pleasure of writing with fountain pens and calligraphy tools. I immediately felt the lack of a proper tool to practice both manual dexterity and memorization of symbols. So I studied some custom patterns.

The Genkō yōshi format usually consists of large squares for Kanji. This book, however, features a grid with a size very similar to the natural handwriting of many people. The classic 5M grid pattern, replaced with a more elegant dotted format, comes in handy both for small handwriting within the 4 dots and very large handwriting in a 9 dots matrix.

These exercises support the progressive learning of four or eight symbols at a time. Each session includes pages where you can practice Hiragana writing and pages focussed on recognising Hiragana characters (very useful to improve your reading skills).

In each session, the first 2 pages focus on the newly discovered characters, while the subsequent pages contain in random order all (or almost all) the syllabograms you have already learnt.

The book features many pages with dots where you can practice more freely and creatively, using a small or a large handwriting, drawing, taking notes, etc. All of this is presented in a 15×23 cm format which is quite easy to bring along.

The last part of the book includes a long list of nouns (cities, people, objects) to practice your skills at writing Hiragana characters.

Despite providing video suggestions for writing and pronunciation, this “book” is not meant to be a manual or a course.

I hope you enjoy.