Japanese Kana Print vs Handwritten Shapes: Reading き, さ, そ, ふ and り

Why the same kana can look different

Hiragana grew out of cursive kanji written with a brush, and early printing types copied those brush shapes. When the brush turned from one stroke into the next, it often left a faint trail of ink joining them, and type designers kept those joins as part of the letter. Meanwhile, schools taught children to write with a pencil, one clear stroke at a time, without the joins. The result is two families of shapes for a small set of characters: the printed form you see in books and on screens, and the handwritten form you see on blackboards, notes and forms.

For き, さ, そ, ふ, り, ら and な the gap is large enough that a learner who has only seen the printed shape can fail to recognise the handwritten one. Once you have seen the pairs side by side, the problem disappears within days.

The seven kana that change the most

The table below describes each form in words. Read it with a printed font and a handwriting sample in front of you if you can, because the differences are easier to see than to describe. In every case the handwritten form is the one taught in Japanese schools and the one you should write yourself.

Mincho, Gothic and handwriting fonts

Japanese fonts fall into a few families, and knowing them tells you which form of a kana to expect. Mincho, minchōtai, is the serif style of newspapers and novels: thin horizontals, thick verticals and small hooks at stroke ends. It keeps the old joined forms of き, さ and り. Gothic, goshikkutai, is the sans-serif style of signs, screens and packaging, with strokes of even thickness. Most Gothic fonts also use the joined forms, though some newer designs separate them.

Textbook fonts, kyōkashotai, were designed for school materials and follow the handwritten model exactly, so they show the separated strokes. Handwriting-style fonts, tegaki fūfonto, imitate pen or marker writing and are popular on café menus, product labels and posters; they too use the separated forms. Rounded Gothic, marugoshikku, softens the ends of Gothic strokes and appears on warning signs and children's products.

Reading them on menus

Menus are where the two families collide. A printed menu card uses Mincho or Gothic, while the daily specials, osusume, are chalked on a board or written with a marker. The same dish name can appear in both forms a metre apart. Food words are rich in the troublesome kana: kitsune udon, sashimi, soba, fugu and onigiri all contain one, and nasu, aubergine, contains な.

Specials boards are written quickly, so a き can look like a small plus sign with a hook underneath and a ふ like a wave with dots scattered around it. Read whole words, not single characters: if three of the four kana are clear, the fourth is obvious from the dish.

Notes, signs and memos

Away from restaurants, the handwritten forms appear on sticky notes at work, on signs taped to shop doors, in delivery slips filled in by a driver and in the comment box of a form a shop assistant fills out for you. Short notices are often written entirely in hiragana, or with just one or two kanji, because the writer is in a hurry.

Writing them yourself, stroke by stroke

When you write, always use the separated school forms. Japanese people notice when a learner copies the joined print form of き or さ, because nobody writes that way, and it looks like a character traced from a screen. Stroke order matters too: it gives each kana its natural proportions and makes your handwriting readable at speed.

• き: two short horizontals, then a long diagonal curving down, then a separate small hook at the bottom left
• さ: one horizontal, then a stroke down and slightly right, then a separate curve swinging to the left
• そ: a short dash, then a z-shape that ends in a long curve; or write both as one stroke if your teacher does
• ふ: a small top dot, a central body that curves like a wave, then a dot on the left and a dot on the right
• り: a short stroke down on the left, then a longer stroke that curves down to the left; leave a gap at the top
• ら: a short top stroke, then a stroke that drops and rounds into an open loop; do not let them touch
• な: horizontal, then a diagonal down, then a light tick, then a stroke that drops and forms a rounded loop

Practise on squared genkō yōshi or any grid paper, one character per square, so each kana is roughly the same size. Then write the same words fast. The shapes that survive speed are the ones you have really learned.

Katakana and kanji with the same problem

Katakana has fewer print and handwriting differences, but two pairs cause constant trouble: シ and ツ, and ソ and ン. The difference is the direction of the strokes. In シ and ン the short strokes sit on the left and the long stroke sweeps up from bottom left; in ツ and ソ the short strokes sit along the top and the long stroke sweeps down from top right. In sloppy handwriting the angle is all you have, so look at where the long stroke starts.

Kanji also have accepted print and handwriting variants. The best known is 令, whose lower part is a straight vertical in print but a small curved stroke by hand; both are official, and either is acceptable on a form.

Common mistakes and what to do when you cannot read a word

The most common mistake is memorising only one form. Learners who drill flashcards in a single Gothic font can read every app and no blackboard. Mix fonts from the start, and add a handwriting-style font or real handwriting samples as soon as you know the basic table. The second mistake is copying the joined print forms when writing; use the school forms.

When a handwritten word will not resolve, do what Japanese people do: ask. Pointing at the word and asking how it reads is completely normal, and staff will often say the dish name and describe it. If the whole menu is handwritten and you are stuck, ask for a menu with photos or ask what is recommended.