Genkōyōshi — Japanese squared writing paper

原稿用紙, "manuscript paper": paper ruled into squares, one character per square. It is what Japanese children learn to write on, what essays and entrance exams are still written on, and the fastest way for a learner to fix the two things romaji hides — that every kana takes the same space, and that small kana like ゃ and っ are characters of their own.

Print it

Genkōyōshi, large squares 原稿用紙（大）

Blank squared paper, 15 mm squares with guide lines — for a beginner's hand. 180 characters.

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Genkōyōshi, standard 原稿用紙

Blank squared paper at the size Japanese schools use, 18 × 22. 396 characters.

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One A4 page each; Ctrl/Cmd + P, or Save as PDF. No signup, CC BY-SA 4.0, so a class set is fine.

The rules, briefly

Six habits cover nearly everything a beginner needs. The first two matter most.

  1. One character per square. A kana, a kanji, a punctuation mark — each gets a square. Nothing shares.
  2. Small kana get their own square. きゃ is two squares. きって is three. Writing horizontally the small one sits low and to the left inside its square; writing vertically, high and to the right. This is the rule learners break most, and the one that makes handwriting look Japanese when it is kept.
  3. The long-vowel mark ー takes a square too, and in vertical writing it is drawn vertically.
  4. Punctuation goes in a square of its own, tucked into the corner — 。 and 、 top-right when writing vertically, bottom-left when writing horizontally. It never starts a line: if it would, it goes into the last square of the line before, sharing with the final character. That rule has a name, 禁則, and it is the one thing on this page a grader will actually mark.
  5. Indent a paragraph by one empty square. Titles usually start on the third or fourth square of the first line; the author's name goes on the second line, right-aligned, with one square left empty at the end.
  6. Direction: traditionally vertical, top to bottom, columns right to left. Classrooms and learner materials — including the sheets here — often use it horizontally. Everything above holds either way.

Why beginners should write on it

Lined paper lets you write ね half the width of あ and never notice. The square does not. It also stops the two habits that come from writing Japanese as if it were English: cramming a small ゃ against its neighbour so that きや and きゃ come out the same, and running a long word into the margin. The practice sheets below start on squares from the first real word.

Practice on squares

A Real words 1–10 · ことば 1〜10 Ten words written only in hiragana you already know, copied square by square on genkōyōshi — one character per square, which is how spacing is learned. A Real words 11–20 · ことば 11〜20 Ten words written only in hiragana you already know, copied square by square on genkōyōshi — one character per square, which is how spacing is learned. A Real words 21–30 · ことば 21〜30 Ten words written only in hiragana you already know, copied square by square on genkōyōshi — one character per square, which is how spacing is learned. A Real words 31–40 · ことば 31〜40 Ten words written only in hiragana you already know, copied square by square on genkōyōshi — one character per square, which is how spacing is learned. A Yōon 1: きゃ to みょ · 拗音 1 A yōon takes two squares, never one: the small kana has its own square, in its lower half. Trace the row, then write it again from memory on the line below. A Yōon 2: りゃ to ぴょ · 拗音 2 The rest of the combinations, including the voiced ones. Same rule: two squares, small kana low and to the right. A Confusable pairs 1: め/ぬ は/ほ さ/き る/ろ · 似ている字 1 Four pairs cause most beginners' misreadings. Look at what tells them apart, then write each one three times without looking back. A Confusable pairs 2: わ/ね ね/れ つ/し こ/い · 似ている字 2 Four more. ね is in two of them — it is the one that loops, every time. B Real words 1–10 · ことば 1〜10 Ten loanwords you already know the sound of, copied square by square on genkōyōshi. The long-vowel mark ー and the small ッ each take a square of their own. B Real words 11–20 · ことば 11〜20 Ten loanwords you already know the sound of, copied square by square on genkōyōshi. The long-vowel mark ー and the small ッ each take a square of their own. B Real words 21–30 · ことば 21〜30 Ten loanwords you already know the sound of, copied square by square on genkōyōshi. The long-vowel mark ー and the small ッ each take a square of their own. B Real words 31–40 · ことば 31〜40 Ten loanwords you already know the sound of, copied square by square on genkōyōshi. The long-vowel mark ー and the small ッ each take a square of their own. B Yōon 1: キャ to ミョ · 拗音 1 A yōon takes two squares, never one: the small kana has its own square, in its lower half. Trace the row, then write it again from memory on the line below. B Yōon 2: リャ to ピョ · 拗音 2 The rest of the combinations, including the voiced ones. Same rule: two squares, small kana low and to the right. B Confusable pairs 1: シ/ツ ソ/ン ク/ワ ウ/ワ · 似ている字 1 シ/ツ and ソ/ン are the pairs that keep tripping people up years later. The difference is which way the long stroke goes — learn that once and both pairs are solved. B Confusable pairs 2: ナ/メ コ/ユ ス/ヌ ル/レ · 似ている字 2 Four more, all about one extra stroke or one open corner.

These are the companion sheets to Level A, hiragana and Level B, katakana; the hiragana ones also appear in the Hiragana Writing Workbook. For the characters themselves, start at A1.