Basic Hiragana Chart

46 Basic Characters (Gojūon)

	A	I	U	E	O
	あ a	い i	う u	え e	お o
K	か ka	き ki	く ku	け ke	こ ko
S	さ sa	し shi	す su	せ se	そ so
T	た ta	ち chi	つ tsu	て te	と to
N	な na	に ni	ぬ nu	ね ne	の no
H	は ha	ひ hi	ふ fu	へ he	ほ ho
M	ま ma	み mi	む mu	め me	も mo
Y	や ya		ゆ yu		よ yo
R	ら ra	り ri	る ru	れ re	ろ ro
W	わ wa				を wo
N	ん n

About this chart

Hiragana is the first of Japanese's two phonetic scripts, used for native Japanese words, grammar particles, and okurigana (verb and adjective endings). This chart lists all 46 base characters of the gojūon ("fifty sounds") table, organized by consonant row (K, S, T, N, H, M, Y, R, W) and vowel column (A, I, U, E, O), with each character's romaji reading printed underneath.

Once you can recognize all 46 characters without hesitation, you're ready for the dakuten/handakuten sounds and contracted sounds, and for reading real Japanese words.

Study alongside this chart

Print this page and keep it at your desk while working through interactive Study mode — reviewing a character here right after missing it in a flashcard drill locks it in faster than either method alone. New to hiragana? Start with Getting Started with Hiragana for a row-by-row introduction, then come back to this chart as a quick reference.

Once the basics are solid, move on to the dakuten & handakuten chart and the contracted sounds chart, or drill everything from memory with a blank practice sheet.

Not sure how to write a character? The hiragana stroke order chart shows the numbered strokes for every character on this sheet, with an animation and a tracing pad for each one.