Hiragana YA – Write Japanese YA (や)

Some people see this as a Yak head watching to the right. Its nose is on the most right side, its ears on the top left and a tall neck moving down along the left side.

A Yak is a Himalayan hoofed mammal type of animal. No such are living wild in Japan.

You can use whatever mnemonic you wish – as long as you can draw YA in Hiragana using the correct stroke order and stroke direction.

Let’s begin drawing this beautiful Hiragana character! It has only 3 simple line strokes.

Step 1: First Tsunami Wave Hook To The Right

The most important thing to remember when drawing this line stroke is to start and end at the same height.

Begin from the left side and move diagonally up to the right and draw a tsunami looking wave heading its way to the right.

Curve down the right side and move it back to the left as you let it fade away its end exactly below its own highest wave point.

Step 2: Mini Size Top Twitch

This is a tiny diagonal twitch located at the top center. Move it diagonally down right.

Step 3: Long Diagonal Line Stroke

Your last line stroke is a simple mini hook to the left and then a long straight diagonal line down to the right. Press harder the more down you reach. Watch the beauty you created!

Well Done! You Learned To Write YA In Hiragana (や)

Easy as that – and you’re done! You may use any mnemonic you want to remember this Hiragana character. Practice drawing it a couple of times and you will easily master it!

This symbol is special because it’s part of a vertical column (a so called gyo) which only has 3 characters instead of the usual 5 symbols.

Over time the Japanese language has changed and some of its ancient sounds have disappeared. That is why this YA-gyo column only has 3 syllables instead of 5.

The background image behind my Hiragana illustration above shows a statue of an old historical Japanese Samurai with a typical traditional Japanese long bow.

He stands inside a huge glass building in Tokyo, not far from central Tokyo train station.

Notice the cool type of hat that the samurai is wearing. There are many different types of ancient Japanese hats, while this one is a famous hat type used by Samurai warriors specialized in archery.

If you like the art of archery then maybe Japanese Kyūdō (弓道) is something for you! There are a half million people practicing the Japanese art of Samurai long bow archery.

If you for example come to the modern city of Kokura here on Kyushu island in West Japan then you will find a central Kyūdō school located close from the police station.

To learn Japanese in advance is highly useful when booking a flight to visit Japan in real. Hiragana should be your first choice, followed by Katakana, then Kanji and connect it all together through practical use of Japanese grammar…the way it is used here in Japan.

Filed under: Hiragana Chart

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!