# Kanji Garden Japanese — Grow your kanji knowledge

> Personalized kanji learning app for Japanese language students using spaced repetition. (iPhone/iPad app by kyle coburn.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/kanji-garden-japanese/id1338967114 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [kyle coburn](https://appshunter.io/developer/477379233)
- Category: Education, Reference
- Price: Free
- Rating: 4.70/5 from 746 App Store ratings · 113 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 13.0 · 17 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2019-06-16
- Data updated: 2026-09-03
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/kanji-garden-japanese/id1338967114/reviews.md

## What is Kanji Garden Japanese?

Designed for Japanese second-language learners. Whether you're learning your first kanji, or skip 2000 you've already mastered to start, it adapts to your knowledge level and time commitments.

PERSONALIZED STUDY:

Set a goal of how many kanji you'd like to learn each day. The app creates a personalized study plan based on what memories you need to strengthen, based on proven learning techniques like spaced repetition.

Kanji you forget will be reviewed more often, while enough correct reviews will fill up its progress ring—which means you won't review it again for a full year. This allows you to maintain progress for hundreds and even thousands of kanji at once, while maintaining a reasonable amount to study each day.

SMARTER REVIEWING:

Get tested on all the common readings for each kanji. Kanji Garden uses vocabulary words made of kanji you've already learned to test in context. Multiple choice answers include commonly confused answers to help you catch your mistakes. Or type in kanji readings to practice Japanese input.

BETTER LEARNING ORDER:

Kanji Garden is built on a simple idea: Learn all the components for a kanji first. When you can break down a character into its components, even kanji with many strokes become easy to recognize. Plus it enables you to take advantage of phono-semantic components that give hints at what the character means, and what it sounds like:

建: Build
健: Health (亻:Person + 建:Build)
鍵: Key (金:metal + 建:Build)

Here, 建 is a phonetic component. Now you know all three have the same on'yomi ケン (ken)!

There's also a heavy focus on easily confused kanji. Kanji Garden teaches these characters together and tests you on their differences to ensure you know how to differentiate them from the start, saving a lot of pain down the road.

料: Material
科: Department

AMAZING STATS:

Visualize your unlocked kanji history or upcoming reviews on the graph. Track your learning streak and earn grace days as you study more. Time travel through your learning history, and save a wallpaper image or animated video of your current progress.

## Key features

- Personalized study plans
- Spaced repetition system
- Contextual vocabulary testing
- Kanji component analysis
- Differentiating easily confused kanji
- Detailed learning statistics

## What do users think of Kanji Garden Japanese?

Overall sentiment: neutral

**Pros**

- 🚀 Efficient kanji learning system
- 👍 Clean and simple interface
- 🌱 Gamified approach to kanji growth
- 🔍 Detailed kanji information (readings, etymology, etc.)
- ⏱️ Customizable learning pace
- 🗣️ Audio pronunciation for words

**Cons**

- 🐛 Bugs and crashes
- 🚫 Lack of updates and developer support
- 💰 Expensive subscription model
- 🤔 Confusing handling of multiple readings
- 🔇 Missing audio for some kanji/words
- 📊 Lacking comprehensive statistics and progress tracking

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Unresponsive UI elements
- Kanji progress reset bug
- Audio playback issues
- Syncing problems across devices

**Most requested features**

- Writing practice for kanji
- Ability to customize/add personal kanji
- More example sentences and vocabulary
- Integration with other Japanese learning resources

## Recent user reviews (10 of 113)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/kanji-garden-japanese/id1338967114/reviews.md

### 1/5 — Spam emails

*2026-06-16, version 1.3*

Unable to unsubscribe from your emails as the u subscribe button doesn’t work. Apple should remove

### 1/5 — Thieves

*2026-05-14, version 1.3*

I unsubscribed at the end of April and turned off my automatic renewal option. They have continued trying to charge my card every other day since May began. I had my card locked temporarily but had to briefly unlock it today and their latest attempt to charge me went through. They have zero customer support and there is no way to remove my card info from their app. Avoid unless you want to be charged by these thieves eternally. Despicable.

### 5/5 — Great for spaced repetition

*2026-02-05, version 1.3*

Been using this app for years, in conjunction with other tools and learning methods. This is the best way I've been able to remember multiple kanji readings. One small addition I'd like is to be able to continue to access the audio versions of the readings that pop up when you learn a new word so that I can review the proper pitch accent. Other than that small nitpick, I'd say this is the most consistent tool I've used to learn how to read Japanese. Also I really like the animated feature that shows your progress filling in the little grid.

### 1/5 — Amazing but abandoned

*2026-01-30, version 1.3*

I would love to give this 5 stars as it single-handedly brought my kanji knowledge back, but sadly it has been abandoned by the creator with a lot of N1/2 kanji left out. If development continues or if the rest of the kanji are added, I would change the score and continue to recommend it. As is, look elsewhere for a kanji app that might get updated.

### 2/5 — Hard to learn Japanese

*2026-01-05, version 1.2*

App is fine to learn about kanji, however found it difficult to find pronunciation for words and found the info rather overwhelming

### 4/5 — Forgot?

*2025-10-24, version 1.3*

I have never pressed the forgot button on a kanji intentionally. I have however, pushed it accidentally what seems like ten thousand gd times. The rest of the ux seems just as thoughtless. Other than that, fun and useful app

### 2/5 — UX is unbearable

*2025-10-15, version 1.3*

Please work on some basic UI UX principles to make this app usable

### 3/5 — Great app

*2025-10-03, version 1.3*

Concept makes it interesting to learn radicals and memorize meanings. 
App interface is very aesthetically pleasing but it needs sound bites for each kanji /sound only quizzes and more ways to interact/practice the Kanji.

### 1/5 — They don’t explain things well, confusing

*2025-03-30, version 1.3*

They don’t do things on a logical order. It’s confusing. Was lost in the first 10 minutes .

### 2/5 — Great format, poor content

*2025-03-29, version 1.3*

I was pleasantly surprised when trying this app. The format and design of this app are great. The way reviews are made, and track how often you have practiced kanjis. There could be minor improvements overall, like showing a total of kanjis learned, or in rotation at the moment. Sadly, the quality of content reached a dealbreaker for me: reviews will bring certain vocabulary words to help you retain the different readings of the same characters, which I thought was a great way to go about it. Unfortunately, I have found a growing number of mistakes. Kunyomi and onyomi readings have many exceptions and the app does not account for them, which makes you learn mistakes. That is sadly a sin for any student having to grow on poor and erroneous knowledge.

## Frequently asked questions about Kanji Garden Japanese

### What does Kanji Garden do?

Kanji Garden is an educational app designed to help Japanese language learners master kanji. It creates personalized study plans based on your knowledge level and uses proven techniques like spaced repetition to strengthen your memory and ensure long-term retention.

### How does the app help me learn kanji?

The app focuses on learning kanji by breaking them down into their components, which makes even complex characters easier to recognize. It also tests you on common readings using vocabulary words and helps differentiate between easily confused kanji to improve your understanding.

### Is Kanji Garden free to use?

Yes, Kanji Garden is a free application. It does not have any in-app purchases or advertisements, allowing users to focus on their learning without interruption.

### What are the key features of Kanji Garden?

Key features include personalized study plans, a spaced repetition system for efficient review, contextual vocabulary testing, an emphasis on learning kanji components, and tools to differentiate easily confused characters. It also provides detailed statistics to track your progress.

### Who is the target audience for Kanji Garden?

The app is specifically designed for Japanese second-language learners. It caters to individuals at any stage of their kanji learning journey, whether they are just starting or looking to reinforce existing knowledge.

## Version history (last 4 releases)

### 1.3 — 2020-12-16

Improves loading times at app launch. Enables more Watch complication types.

### 1.2 — 2020-12-08

Fixed a crash when playing audio, and support for iOS 14.

### 1.1 — 2020-12-07

Fixed a crash when playing audio, and support for iOS 14.

### 1.0 — 2019-06-15

No release notes.

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All apps by kyle coburn: https://appshunter.io/developer/477379233

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-03.*