Reference
The hiragana flick input chart
Every key on a Japanese flick keyboard, what it types when you tap it, and what each of its four directions produces. This is the layout the Furikku keypad runs, and it is the same one your phone has been using all along.
| Key | Tap | Flick left | Flick up | Flick right | Flick down |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| あa | あa | いi | うu | えe | おo |
| かka | かka | きki | くku | けke | こko |
| さsa | さsa | しshi | すsu | せse | そso |
| たta | たta | ちchi | つtsu | てte | とto |
| なna | なna | にni | ぬnu | ねne | のno |
| はha | はha | ひhi | ふfu | へhe | ほho |
| まma | まma | みmi | むmu | めme | もmo |
| やya | やya | 「open quote | ゆyu | 」close quote | よyo |
| らra | らra | りri | るru | れre | ろro |
| ゛゜dakuten / handakuten | ゛゜modifies the last kana | ◀cursor left | ▲cursor up | ▶cursor right | ▼cursor down |
| わwa | わwa | をwo | んn | ーlong vowel | 〜wave dash |
| 、comma | 、comma | 。full stop | ？question | ！exclamation | …ellipsis |
Amber cells are not kana: they are punctuation, long-vowel marks, or — on the ゛゜ key — cursor movement. See the keys that don't fit the pattern.
How to read it
Japanese kana are traditionally arranged in a grid called the gojūon — fifty sounds, laid out as ten consonant rows crossed with five vowel columns, called dan. The か row is か / き / く / け / こ; the さ row is さ / し / す / せ / そ. Every row runs through the same five vowels in the same order.
A flick keyboard turns that grid into twelve keys by giving each consonant row one key. Tapping the key types the a-dan character printed on it. Flicking picks a different vowel, and the direction is the same on every key:
- Tap — a-dan あ か さ
- Left — i-dan い き し
- Up — u-dan う く す
- Right — e-dan え け せ
- Down — o-dan お こ そ
Learn those five directions once and they hold for nine of the twelve keys. There is no per-key memorisation, which is the reason flick input is faster to pick up than it looks.
The keys that don't fit the pattern
Three rows of the gojūon are incomplete in modern Japanese, and one key isn't a kana key at all. Flick keyboards fill the empty slots with punctuation rather than waste them.
- や
- Has only や, ゆ and よ. The empty i-dan and e-dan slots hold the Japanese quotation marks 「 and 」.
- わ
- Holds わ, を and ん — the three that survive in modern use — plus the long-vowel mark ー and the wave dash 〜.
- 、
- Not a kana key. It is the punctuation key: 、 。 ？ ！ and …
- ゛゜
- Not a kana key either. Tapping it cycles the character you just typed through its voiced and small forms — か → が, は → ば → ぱ, つ → っ. Its four directions move the cursor instead of typing anything.
That last key is why the chart has no separate rows for が, ば or ぱ. Voiced kana aren't extra keys; they're a modifier applied after the fact, which is what keeps the whole layout down to twelve.
Flicking on something other than a phone
This layout was designed for thumbs on glass, and it has stayed on phones because that is the only place a touchscreen was. A physical keyboard can't reproduce it: flick input needs a surface that senses direction, not switches that sense a press. Google Japan got closest in 2016, with a desktop board whose keys slid sideways.
Furikku is that surface — a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen keypad running this exact layout, plugged into a Mac over USB-C. The chart above is generated from the keypad's own layout file, so it is the device's behaviour rather than a drawing of it.