Kanji Mosaic teaches Japanese kanji the way they are made. Learn a few hundred pieces, build every kanji with your own hands, write each stroke, and watch what you know turn into a mosaic. All 2,136 jōyō kanji, JLPT N5 to N1, plus hiragana and katakana.
日 sun + 月 moon = 明 bright
How Kanji Mosaic works
Most kanji are combinations of recurring components, often called radicals. Learn the pieces once and every new kanji is a short puzzle instead of a new picture to memorize.
Learn a kanji
Every kanji splits into the parts it is made of. Drag the pieces into place, watch them turn from pictures into strokes, and see the tile set. Pinch any kanji to take it apart again.
Each kanji comes with a memory story that explains its real structure: 休 (rest) is a person 亻 leaning against a tree 木. Readings, common words and example sentences come with it.
Mystery Kanji
Once you know the pieces, Mystery Kanji hands you a kanji you have never studied and asks you to work it out: its meaning, or which sound it borrows from a phonetic component.
It is the moment kanji stop being random and start making sense.
Handwriting
Trace each kana and kanji with your finger or Apple Pencil, then write it from memory in reviews. Every stroke is checked for shape, direction and order, and you are told exactly what to fix.
Your mosaic
Every kanji you learn becomes a tile, glazed by the family of its main piece. Watch whole families light up, explore how pieces connect in the constellation view, and complete pictures of a wave, Mount Fuji, a koi, a torii and a landscape made of kanji you can read.
Everything in the app
An FSRS-style memory model tests meaning, pieces, reading and writing separately, so you review what you actually forget.
Pick a daily session length. New kanji and reviews are balanced so reviews never pile up into a backlog.
All 92 kana with stroke order, tracing and quizzes that tell look-alikes such as ソ and ン apart.
Common vocabulary with readings, real example sentences and on-device pronunciation audio.
A quick check places you: start from hiragana, or skip straight to the kanji you don't know yet.
No account. Lessons, reviews and handwriting checks run on your iPhone or iPad, and your drawings never leave it.
Coverage
The course follows the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test levels. Within each level, kanji are ordered by how often they appear in Japanese newspapers, and every piece is taught before the first kanji that uses it.
| Level | Kanji | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| N5 | 79 | Beginner: numbers, days, people, nature |
| N4 | 166 | Elementary: everyday verbs and places |
| N3 | 367 | Intermediate: news headlines, signs |
| N2 | 367 | Upper intermediate: articles, work |
| N1 | 1,404 | Advanced, including 172 jōyō kanji not on any JLPT list |
| Extra | 160 | Common non-jōyō and name kanji |
| Total | 2,543 | All 2,136 jōyō kanji + 407 extras |
Why it works
Pricing
No account, no card
$39.99/year with a 7-day free trial, or $9.99/month
US prices; local prices vary. Subscriptions renew automatically and can be cancelled in your App Store account settings.
FAQ
Kanji Mosaic is a Japanese kanji learning app for iPhone and iPad. Instead of memorizing each kanji as a separate drawing, you learn the few hundred pieces kanji are built from, then assemble, write and review every kanji. Each kanji you learn becomes a tile in a mosaic that grows as you study.
All 2,136 jōyō kanji (the official list of kanji for everyday use in Japan) plus 407 extras: non-jōyō kanji that appear on JLPT lists and common name kanji. That is 2,543 kanji in total, built from 965 pieces, with 5,503 common words.
Yes. Every kanji is tagged with its JLPT level and the course goes N5 → N4 → N3 → N2 → N1: 79 kanji at N5, 166 at N4, 367 at N3, 367 at N2 and 1,404 at N1. Within a level, kanji are ordered by how often they appear in Japanese newspapers, and every piece is taught before the first kanji that uses it.
Yes. All 92 hiragana and katakana are included for free, with stroke order animations, tracing and quizzes that separate look-alike characters. If you already read kana, the placement check lets you skip straight to kanji.
Flashcards treat each kanji as an unrelated picture to memorize. Kanji Mosaic teaches the components (radicals and other recurring parts) first, so a new kanji like 明 (bright) is recognized as 日 (sun) + 月 (moon) rather than eight random strokes. Once you know the pieces, the Mystery Kanji exercise asks you to work out the meaning or reading of kanji you have never studied.
Yes. You trace each kana and kanji with your finger or Apple Pencil, then write it from memory in reviews. Every stroke is checked for shape, direction and order, and the app tells you exactly what to fix. Handwriting in reviews can be turned off in settings.
Reviews use an FSRS-style memory model that tracks meaning, pieces, reading and writing as separate strengths, so you are tested on what you actually forget. You choose a 5, 10, 15 or 20 minute daily session, and the app balances new kanji and reviews so reviews never pile up into a backlog.
Kanji Mosaic is free to download. Hiragana, katakana, the placement check and the first 15 kanji are free. Kanji Mosaic Pro unlocks every kanji, piece, word and artwork for $9.99 per month or $39.99 per year in the US, and the yearly plan starts with a 7-day free trial. Prices vary by country.
Kanji Mosaic runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 26 or later, and supports Apple Pencil for handwriting on iPad. There is no Android version yet.
No. There is no account, and lessons, reviews, handwriting checks and pronunciation audio all work offline on the device. Your progress and your handwriting stay on your iPhone or iPad.
The app interface is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil).
Meanings and readings are derived from KANJIDIC2 and JMdict by the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group (CC BY-SA 4.0), and stroke data and piece boundaries come from KanjiVG by Ulrich Apel (CC BY-SA 3.0). Memory stories, confusable kanji and example sentences are curated on top.
Yes. Hanzi Mosaic, by the same developer, teaches Chinese characters with the same method, covering all 3,088 HSK 3.0 characters from HSK 1 to HSK 7–9 in simplified or traditional script.
Start in 20 seconds. Hiragana, katakana and your first 15 kanji are free.
