About Masume

Masume is a free tool for teachers of Japanese. You paste the words of a unit and print three things from that one list: a kanji stroke-order sheet, a reading quiz with its answer key, and word cards.

The name is the Japanese word for the squares on writing practice paper (マス目, masume). Each kanji on the stroke-order sheet gets a row of them: three to trace and seven to write.

How the readings work

Readings come from the JMdict and KANJIDIC2 dictionary files and a fixed set of rules. A list gives the same printout every time until we update the dictionary data. The Credits page gives the date of the current data. A reading you type after a comma always wins. Verb and adjective forms such as 行きます or 食べました are read from the dictionary form (行く, 食べる). If the dictionary has no sure reading for a word, the word is left off the quiz, answer key and cards, and a box above the Print button asks you for one. When the dictionary knows several readings, such as 本 (ほん or もと), the box shows them as buttons, and one click puts the word back.

Furigana follow the level you choose. Say you choose "the kanji I list below" on the home page and list 先 and 生. Then 先生 prints with no furigana, and the quiz asks your students to read it. Some words are read as a whole, such as 今日 (きょう) or 大人 (おとな). Their reading cannot be split by kanji, so the furigana go over the whole word when any of its kanji needs one.

Who runs it

Masume is run by orientx labs. Write to [email protected] to report a wrong reading or stroke order. Please include the word and the reading you expected.