Write it, don't just recognize it. Progress saves itself.
Spaced repetition. Every card you grade is scheduled to come back right before you'd forget it — sooner if it was hard, later if it was easy. A few minutes a day beats an hour once a week.
Five at a time. Learning happens in small batches: five new characters or words, then finish grading them before the next five unlock. New kanji run three rounds — trace, faint guide, from memory — and their meanings then join as flash cards.
The levels. N5–N1 are the JLPT levels: N5 is beginner, N1 near-native. A good path: hiragana → katakana → N5 kanji and vocabulary → grammar and sentences.
Accounts are optional. Progress saves in this browser either way; an account adds cloud sync across devices and friends.
on（音読み） — the Chinese-derived reading, used mostly in compound words: 水曜日 (すいようび, Wednesday) uses 水's on reading すい.
kun（訓読み） — the native Japanese reading, used when the kanji stands alone or with kana attached: 水 by itself is みず (water).
Parentheses show okurigana — the kana written after the kanji: か(う) means the word is 買う, kau.
Progress auto-saves in this browser after every card you grade. Export a backup code any time — paste it on any device to restore.
iPhone: open this page in Safari, tap Share → Add to Home Screen. It launches fullscreen like a native app. The home-screen copy keeps its own progress — use a backup code if you switch between it and Safari.
Stroke data © KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Sukima teaches you to read and write Japanese by hand, a minute at a time.
Start with hiragana — the 46 letters every Japanese word can be spelled with. Trace each one until your hand remembers it, five at a time.
Cards come back for review right before you'd forget them. After each card, grade yourself honestly — that's what sets the timing.