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若草 (Young Grass) in regular script (kaisho), Japanese calligraphy model sheet

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Young Grass

wakakusa2 characters17 strokes

若草 (wakakusa) means young grass: the soft, fresh green shoots of spring, full of the energy to keep growing.

Free practice sheet

Regular script · PDF, 2 pages (model + tracing) · 252 KB

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Meaning

What means

The Japanese word for Young Grass, written with 2 kanji and read wakakusa.

Wakakusa is grass that has just sprouted in spring, soft and fresh. It also stands for the power to grow that is still to come.

When people write it in Japan. Wakakusa is a common word for spring pieces and for practice at the start of a new school year.

young8 strokes · Taught in 6th grade in Japan
grass; plants9 strokes · Taught in 1st grade in Japan

Japanese children know every kanji here by 6th grade.

How to write it

Brush tips for

Three things to watch

  1. Both 若 and 草 have the grass radical at the top (kusakanmuri). Write it wide, so it sits over the part below.
  2. In 若, after the grass radical, start with the sweep down to the left (ノ). This is the same stroke order as in 右.
  3. In 草, bring the last vertical stroke straight down the center of the character, long and steady.

Stroke order

Follow the vermilion stroke, frame by frame.

Stroke order data: KanjiVG by Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0.

How to practice

Trace first, then copy

  1. PrintPrint both pages at actual size, on US Letter or A4. Page 1 is the model. Page 2 is the tracing sheet.
  2. TraceTrace the outlines with a brush pen. Or lay thin hanshi paper over the page and trace with brush and ink.
  3. CopySet the model beside your paper and copy it stroke by stroke. Look at the model more than at your own paper.

Free for personal practice and classroom use. Please do not sell or re-post the files. Share a link to this page instead.

Ready to write ?Model + tracing sheet · US Letter or A4 · free
Cover of Japanese Calligraphy for Beginners by Sanayuki Morita

While the sets are on their way

The book is out now.

Japanese Calligraphy for Beginners takes you from holding the brush to writing whole words, step by step, in English. Every model inside was brushed by our teachers.

Starter Set, $72.99 with the book, brush, ink and paper: coming soon.

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