If you've ever tried to learn hiragana and katakana, you've probably run into the same wall I did: most apps give you the basic 46 characters for free, then either paywall the rest, bury you in ads between questions, or push a subscription before you've learned much of anything.
That's the problem Kana Hanko is built to solve — it's now live on Google Play, free to download.
Get Kana Hanko on Google Play →
All about Kana Hanko →
What Kana Hanko Is
Kana Hanko is a study app for the full Japanese kana system — all 208 characters across both hiragana and katakana, including the voiced (濁音), semi-voiced (半濁音), and combination (拗音) forms that most apps leave out. Every character, both scripts, every study mode, completely free — with no ads, ever.
What You Get, Free
- The complete chart — 104 hiragana and 104 katakana, not just the introductory set
- Tap-to-hear audio for every character
- Drill mode, a spaced-repetition quiz that figures out which characters you keep missing and brings them back around more often
- Listening mode, where you hear a character and pick what you heard — the half of kana recognition that flashcards alone don't cover
- Filters by row or tier, so you can focus on just one row, just the combination characters, or the whole set
- Streak, accuracy, and mastery tracking
- Full offline support — no account, no sign-up, no tracking of any kind
One Optional Upgrade
For anyone who wants to go further, a single one-time purchase (not a subscription) unlocks:
- Animated stroke order for all 208 characters, with finger-tracing practice that checks your starting point and stroke direction
- A full progress dashboard, showing per-character accuracy and 30-day trends, so you can catch characters that are quietly slipping before they become a problem
Everything free stays free in both tiers. There are no ads anywhere in the app, paid or not.
Designed With Intent
The visual design leans into ink, vermillion, and paper — a hanko seal stamps down every time you get an answer right. Japanese typefaces (Shippori Mincho and Zen Kaku Gothic New) are bundled directly into the app, so text renders correctly whether or not you have a connection.
Privacy, By Design
Kana Hanko doesn't collect data, because it doesn't need to. Your progress stays on your device — there's no account, no analytics, no advertising SDK. If you choose the one-time unlock, Google Play handles the purchase directly; the app never sees your payment details.
Stroke order data is derived from KanjiVG by Ulrich Apel, used under CC BY-SA 3.0.
What's Next
Kana Hanko is live on Google Play, with more updates to come. Run into an issue or have feedback? Email info@theengineeredescape.com — we read every message.