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JAPANESE · VISUAL KANJI METHOD · BETA

Find a kanji by its shape — then learn how to read it

For learners who don't know the pronunciation yet, or any product without a pinyin keyboard: pick a stroke, narrow down by component and position, get the character. The widget on the right is calling the same public API your platform can call — this isn't a mockup.

Get API Key

Enter your API key (or start a free trial), then tap a stroke.

Read real Japanese: paste, photograph or speak it

Kanji are the bricks; words and sentences are what you actually read. Paste any Japanese text (or take a photo / say it): it is split into words with furigana and meaning, and every kanji opens into its components — the same decode the API gives your platform. Characters and words not yet in the table are added on the spot.

How it works for Japanese

Same structural method as the Chinese Visual Key, built on the official 2,136 jōyō kanji (改定常用漢字表). Every candidate shows its reading; every character opens a learning card.

① Stroke → part → position → kanji

Tap a stroke you can see in the character, pick the part, say where it sits — the kanji appears, sorted by Japanese frequency. Japanese new forms (読 気 桜 国…) are first-class, not mapped from Chinese.

② Readings on every candidate

On-yomi and kun-yomi under each candidate, so the answer to "how do I read this?" arrives with the character itself.

③ Learning card

Tap any character you found: all readings, example words, school grade, JLPT level, old form (旧字体), and the traditional / simplified Chinese counterparts for Chinese-speaking learners.

④ Part hints & the same API

Hover a part for its reading and a one-line hint. Everything here is the public API with variant=jp — your platform can call it with the same key.

Call it directly

Same Bearer-key auth as the structural decomposition API, with an independent quota — it won't eat into your decompose usage.

curl 
curl "https://api.chinesekey.org/v1/visual-input/components?strokes=h&variant=jp" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pk_live_..."

curl "https://api.chinesekey.org/v1/visual-input/positions?part=言&variant=jp" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pk_live_..."

curl "https://api.chinesekey.org/v1/visual-input/candidates?parts=言@A02&variant=jp" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pk_live_..."
GET /v1/visual-input — full endpoint list & limits →