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満天の星 (A Sky Full of Stars) in regular script (kaisho), Japanese calligraphy model sheet

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A Sky Full of Stars

manten no hoshi4 characters26 strokes

満天の星 (manten no hoshi) means a sky full of stars: so many stars shining across the whole night sky that no one could count them.

Free practice sheet

Regular script · PDF, 2 pages (model + tracing) · 265 KB

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Meaning

What means

The Japanese word for A Sky Full of Stars, written in kanji and kana, read manten no hoshi.

LiterallyStars of the full sky.

Manten no hoshi describes a night sky filled with more stars than you could ever count. The phrase captures the beauty of a clear, starry night.

When people write it in Japan. Manten no hoshi suits pieces about the night sky in summer or winter, or memories of stars seen on a camping trip.

full; fill12 strokes · Taught in 4th grade in Japan
heaven; sky4 strokes · Taught in 1st grade in Japan
Hiragana1 stroke
star9 strokes · Taught in 2nd grade in Japan

Japanese children know every kanji here by 4th grade.

How to write it

Brush tips for

Three things to watch

  1. Write the hiragana の fairly small. Next to 満 and 星, which have many strokes, it should not stand out too much.
  2. In 天, open the 3rd stroke, the sweep down to the left, and the 4th stroke, the sweep down to the right, wide apart. Let the two horizontal strokes rest on top.
  3. In the 生 at the bottom of 星, sweep the 5th stroke down to the left. Space the remaining three horizontal strokes evenly.

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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