After all, while the complete set of 46 hiragana is bigger than the 26-letter English alphabet, it’s still way more manageable than the 2,000 or so regular-use kanji, the collected group that serves ...

Learn to write and read Hiragana, one of the basic Japanese syllabaries. Free download of PDF Hiragana chart. Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, provides these reliable Japanese lessons.

What we like: Covers the entire Hiragana alphabet along with 23 Kanji. Features staples of Japanese culture like Zen, onsen and sumo. 128 pages of material include lessons on writing characters.

Taku Satoh Design Officecreated this 3D paper version of the Japanese Hiragana alphabet in response to the prevalence of superflat media, where we read and watch from 2D screens.