Genkō Yōshi Paper
Japanese manuscript paper: one character per square, columns read top to bottom and right to left, with a gutter for furigana.
Japanese manuscript paper: one character per square, columns read top to bottom and right to left, with a gutter for furigana.
Choose Genkō Yōshi Paper from the list. It opens with the usual size already set.
Pick the paper size, the grid and the orientation. Customize holds colours, margins and more.
Download the ready PDF, or print straight from the page at 100% scale.
Genkō yōshi rules the page into squares and asks for exactly one character in each — kanji, kana, punctuation and even the small pause marks all take a full square. That makes the page a counter as much as a guide: a standard sheet of 20 squares by 20 columns holds 400 characters, which is how manuscript length is measured in Japanese publishing.
The narrow gutter beside each column is for furigana, the small kana that gloss a kanji's reading. Leaving it out is what separates plain squared paper from genkō yōshi.
Columns are read from the right edge of the page towards the left, and each column from top to bottom, which is why the grid here is anchored to the right.
Every sheet here is free, adjustable and prints at exact scale.
The standard is 20 squares per column, which with 20 columns gives the classic 400-character sheet. Set fewer squares per column for larger, easier characters when practising.
The gutter for furigana — the small kana written beside a kanji to show its reading. Set the gutter to zero if you do not need it.
Yes. Full stops, commas and small kana each take a full square, which is what makes the character count exact.
