Kanji Nerd

Project, September 2016

Study the highest level of Japanese Kanji with Bret Mayer's database, the first non-Japanese person to ever pass the Kanji Kentei 1 test!



pixel art portrait of Pascal Pixel
pixel art portrait of Bret Mayer

What it is

A way to learn the very upper levels of Chinese Characters used in Japan, called Kanji.

It is the only resource both online and offline of some of the most obscure translations of Japanese idioms, proverbs and synonyms to English.

Used by Japanese to find their proverbs and idioms in English.

Starting in December 2016, it is a collaboration with Bret Mayer, the first foreigner in the world to pass the top level 1 Kanji test in Japan. Making him one of less than 200 people in the world to do so.

I handled the design and Rails programming for this site, it is a unique project that allows us to be extremely creative in our styling and explore the limits of language support online.

  • Japanese to English database of kanji compounds and proverbs
  • Kanji Kentei 1 Vocab, ateji, proverbs and 4-character idioms
  • Kotowaza Kentei all levels complete with English translations and breakdowns

Feel free to go have a look around yourself!

Visit Kanji Nerd