
Shakyo: Heart Sutra Copying
Mindful kanji brush tracing
0 ratings
Free
In-App Purchases
Rating summary
About
Shakyo is the Japanese practice of copying sutras by hand. This app lets you do it on your iPhone: one large character at a time, tracing a faint model with your finger, until the Heart Sutra fills a traditional vertical sheet in your own handwriting.
ONE CHARACTER AT A TIME
• A big writing box with a faint model character (0–50% opacity, or hidden)
• Optional 米 and 田 grid guides
• A pen with brush-like thick and thin strokes, in three widths
• Back, Rewrite and Undo; leave anytime and pick up at the same character
• Optional auto-advance after 1.5 seconds
A REAL SHAKYO SHEET
• Vertical columns of 17 characters: title, text, your wish, the date and your name
• Pick a traditional wish (family safety, good health, passing an exam…) or write your own
• Dates written in kanji, Japanese era style
• Pinch to zoom; save or share the sheet as a PNG image
A QUIET DAILY HABIT
• A calendar of the days you wrote and your current streak
• Sheets finished and characters written
• Every finished sheet kept to look back on
TEXTS
Free: the Heart Sutra in its Japanese shakyo form, plus Simplified and Traditional Chinese versions.
Pro: Enmei Jukku Kannon-gyo, Shari Raimon, the Iroha poem, the Rebirth Dharani (Wangsheng Zhou), ten Tang poems, and your own text (up to 1,000 characters).
PRO: ONE-TIME PURCHASE, NO SUBSCRIPTION
All texts and poems, your own text, vermilion and gold inks, natural and navy papers, several sheets in progress, and 3× resolution export.
Includes a short guide to shakyo etiquette.
No account, no ads, no tracking. Everything you write stays on your device.
Font: Shakyo Kai, a modified subset of LXGW WenKai (SIL Open Font License 1.1).
Show more
What's New in Shakyo
1.0
October 15, 2026
1
Subscriptions & In-App Purchases
$1.99
Shakyo Pro
All texts, your own text, more inks/papers, 3× export.





