Shu: Write Kanji
Learn Japanese by handwriting
Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
Write kanji with a real brush and get marked in red: stroke order, direction, and every stop, flick and sweep. All of JLPT N5, hiragana and katakana are free.
Write kanji with a real brush, and get corrected the way a calligraphy teacher marks a page.
You write each character with Apple Pencil, or a finger, in an ink that behaves like sumi on paper. When you lift the brush, your teacher looks, then marks in vermilion: a ring round the stroke that stopped where it should have flicked, the flick you should have made, and one word in the margin. Then you write it again, and get it right.
WHAT SHU MARKS
• Stroke order and stroke direction
• Shape, against the form taught in Japanese schools
• How every stroke ends: tome (stop), hane (flick) and harai (sweep), read from your Pencil's pressure and speed
• Proportion, if you choose Teacher strictness
Shu never marks a variant that Japan's official handwriting guidelines accept, and never puts more than three marks on a character.
A SEAL BOOK YOU FILL
Every kanji you write is kept on its own page of your seal book, in your own hand, with the date. When a kanji is truly learned, its page earns a vermilion seal.
DAILY REVIEWS THAT GRADE THEMSELVES
Reviews are scheduled with FSRS, the modern spaced-repetition algorithm. Shu grades each review from the teacher's marks, so you never have to grade yourself. New kanji are taught in three pages: trace, copy, then write from memory.
DECKS
JLPT N5 to N1, all 2,136 Jōyō kanji by school grade, hiragana and katakana, and decks you make yourself.
MADE FOR IPAD AND APPLE PENCIL
• Pencil pressure and tilt shape the brush
• Hover shows where the brush will land
• Squeeze or double tap on Apple Pencil Pro
• Landscape, portrait, Split View and Stage Manager
FREE
All hiragana and katakana, all of JLPT N5, unlimited reviews, both brushes, every strictness level, the full correction language and your seal book.
SHU PRO
JLPT N4 to N1 and every Jōyō kanji, printable practice sheets, and your own decks. Yearly with a 7-day free trial, monthly, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled in Settings, at least a day before renewal.
PRIVATE
No account, no ads, no tracking. Everything stays on your iPad.
Stroke data from KanjiVG by Ulrich Apel (CC BY-SA 3.0). Dictionary data from the KANJIDIC and JMdict files of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, used under its licence.
Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
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The developer, Damola Olagoke, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
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Information
- Seller
- Damola Olagoke
- Size
- 17.7 MB
- Category
- Education
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 27.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 27.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 27.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 27.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 27.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- In-App Purchases
Yes
- Shu Pro, lifetime $119.99
- Shu Pro, monthly $7.99
- Shu Pro, yearly $49.99
- Copyright
- © 2026 Subomi Olagoke