Yomibunko (by Yomimaru): a free library of 300+ Japanese stories graded from N5 to N1

[klyyze]

Hey everyone !

You might already know Yomimaru, we launched it on this forum in June. A lot has changed since then, and today I’m really happy to share the part that came straight out of that thread. @Litehawk asked then why we didn’t curate the native Japanese that already exists instead of generating new text. It was a fair question, and Yomibunko is our answer: a free library of Japanese stories and essays, graded from N5 to N1.

From N4 up, it’s all real Japanese literature from Aozora Bunko: 31 texts at N4, 80 at N3, 74 at N2 and 170 at N1, by about a hundred authors, like Niimi Nankichi or Edogawa Ranpo. We picked them out of Aozora’s thousands of works, graded each one, and updated the old spelling where it would trip up a modern reader.

N5 is different. Native stories an N5 learner can read are very hard to find, and most are written for small children. So 12 of the 14 N5 stories are originals, and I wrote the plot of every single one myself. One of them is about an old man who hasn’t closed his ramen stall once in fifty years, until the morning he can’t get up. Writing a thrilling or emotional story with only N5 vocabulary and grammar is honestly a headache, but I’m very happy with how they turned out, and with the first feedback we got on them.

Anyone who has looked for Japanese reading at their level knows how tedious it is. In Yomibunko it takes three clicks: your level, a theme like horror or folklore, and how long you want to read, and you get a list of stories that fit.

Long fantasy, history and samurai stories at N2

When you open a story, you first see the words most likely to stop you, often a name or an old object not everyone knows, and you can tap each one before you start. Many longer stories come in five-minute parts, with a recap when you come back.

The words to know, before the first line

Every story ends with a quiz. When you read word by word, it’s easy to understand each sentence and still miss what happened, and the quiz tells you if you did. While you read, every word has a dictionary lookup, like Yomichan, with pitch accent and the stroke order of each kanji. If you’re stuck on a whole sentence, you can select it and get a translation or an explanation of its grammar. That part uses AI credits, and a free account starts with 80.

You can also search by grammar point: if you’re studying 〜てしまう in Bunpro, you get the stories at your level where it’s one of the main grammar points.

You can browse the library without an account. To read a story in full you need a free Yomimaru account (no credit card needed), and if you sync WaniKani (free too), the kanji you learned there lose their furigana as you level up.

If you try it, I’d love to know whether the stories at your level feel right. And the N5 originals especially: I’m really attached to those, so if you read one, please tell me what you thought, good or bad.

You can check it there: Free Japanese Reading Library by JLPT Level | Yomimaru

がんばりましょう

[YandrosTheSane]

Generally nice website (but a bit too much AI in your face, having an option to tone it down would feel good).
A few questions after testing a bit:

• is vertical reading planned ?
• is a full page no distraction mode planned ?
  Even at 200% the read windows is way too small on a 4k screen:
  
  

And none of the UI element are interesting to the user when “reading”

• would you consider having a “online reference” mode for grammar instead of the LLM in chat explanations. Being able for example to highlight a grammar point and have a few external structured resources (like the matching bunpro card) would be great. As a user I have a lot more confidence in Bunpro than your LLM.
  
  

This remark is done in the context of importing my own text and wanting to be able to find quickly grammar I stumble upon.

[fengduoyin]

Is my understanding correct in that you have full free access to the website’s features and stories unless you’re interested in AI features (which, personally, I don’t intend to use)?

[Calyanare]

That link only goes to the main Yomimaru page, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to filter the stories by anything other than level and genre. I don’t want to read AI-generated stories at all; is there a way to filter this?

Oh wow, I can’t filter on level without including all lower levels, either?

[klyyze]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to test it and write all this, it’s really helpful feedback !

Vertical reading: yes, we’ve been working on it for a while and it’s on the way. Building the reader for vertical text turned out harder than for horizontal text, but it’s coming very soon, and I’ll ping you when it’s out.

For the no-distraction mode, just to make sure I understand: would something that goes further than the current Focus mode work for you ? No paper background and nothing else on screen, including the reading sidebar, just the text at full height and a bit wider. We’re definitely going to work on that. In the meantime, the Display Options panel in the reading sidebar lets you make the text bigger and adjust the line height as you like.

On grammar, I agree with you. I’d love to have a free grammar reference with explanations that we’re allowed to use in the app, but I searched a lot and couldn’t find one, so AI is the compromise we made for now. We do everything we can to make it reliable, and it is more reliable than asking ChatGPT directly: for example, the grammar points it picks out in a text come from a fixed list of JLPT grammar points, it doesn’t invent its own. But I understand trusting Bunpro more.

For finding the grammar you stumble on: the Learning Compass in the reading sidebar has a Grammar Spotlight that lists the main grammar points of the text, and tapping one takes you to where it’s used. Would highlighting the grammar structures directly in the text be useful to you ?

[klyyze]

When you’re logged in, the link takes you straight into the library inside the app, that’s why you didn’t land on the public page. The public one (logged out, or in a private window) also lets you filter by length and by grammar point.

And to your question: none of the stories in the library are AI-generated. There are 10 kana-only stories for absolute beginners and 12 original N5 stories that were written by hand, and everything else is Japanese literature from Aozora Bunko. The only change to the classics is the old spelling, updated so it reads naturally today (AI suggested the changes, and a person checked each one before it went live).

If you already have a specific work in mind, like Natsume Sōseki’s I Am a Cat, you can search for it in the in-app library, which has more than 15,000 other texts. Those haven’t been modernized, so they can be quite a bit harder to read.

The only AI-written texts in the app are the news articles. We pick topics that Japanese newsrooms like NHK, Asahi or Mainichi are covering, and AI writes a version at N4, N3 and N1 that stays as close as it can to how the original articles are written. The facts only come from those articles, and each one lists its sources. The Content Studio can also write a story for you, but only if you ask it to.

Let me know if that answers your question !

[YandrosTheSane]

First, thanks for the answer

@klyyze

For the no-distraction mode, just to make sure I understand: would something that goes further than the current Focus mode work for you ?

Almost all readers have a mode with nothing on screen like

I like all the interactivity you propose but if they are hidden while i don’t use them it’s a lot better for my immersion.

@klyyze

On grammar, I agree with you. I’d love to have a free grammar reference with explanations that we’re allowed to use in the app, but I searched a lot and couldn’t find one, so AI is the compromise we made for now. We do everything we can to make it reliable, and it is more reliable than asking ChatGPT directly: for example, the grammar points it picks out in a text come from a fixed list of JLPT grammar points, it doesn’t invent its own. But I understand trusting Bunpro more.

I very much understand the problem and pain, I’m reduce to extract grammar point through LLM to and cross referencing them through online resource but of course I don’t think it would be acceptable at scale (unless you partner with BP or such, they seem pretty chill).

@klyyze

Would highlighting the grammar structures directly in the text be useful to you ?

My dream usage would be something like the jpdb extention reader (it’s desktop centered).

Step by step rough idea

1. Highlight and right click, “see grammar” (another option separate from your current “explain”)
   
   

2.Grammar points are highlighted (instead of vocab here)

3. Upon selection of a highlighted grammar point a list of link and references is available (instead of the SRS options here)
   
   

Basically what bunpro does here at the end of a grammar point.

4. Ultra bonus point, if I can get a grammar SRS self study sentence as curl or similar to set the grammar in my prefered grammar SRS (or if your SRS does grammar well, I didn’t check)

but that higlight grammar and upon selection give a list of reference.

---

Lastly please do not design too much around my feedback !

I’m probably far from your core audience and not prone to spend money (as I can usually script and build the minimal tools that suit me)

[klyyze]

Almost ! Everything about reading is free: the 370+ stories in the public library and the 15,000+ other texts in the app. For every library story you also get the full comprehension quiz for every part, and the hardest words, grammar and cultural points picked out for you, along with a text difficulty analysis (how the kanji and words spread across JLPT levels, kanji density and so on). The dictionary lookup and exporting your words to Anki are free too, and so is the WaniKani and MaruMori auto sync: the app knows your level and exactly which kanji you’ve learned, and the furigana disappears on those kanji as you level up.

Apart from the AI features, which run on credits (you get 80 when you sign up and 5 more each month), a few things need Samurai ($9.99/month) or Shogun ($19.99/month):

• Importing your own texts: the free plan gives you 10 imports, one per month, and paid plans are unlimited.
• Spaced repetition review whenever you want, on any word list. The review sessions that come up on the Guided Path are free.
• Creating your own word lists.

If you don’t plan to use AI, Samurai covers all of it. Shogun only adds more AI credits.

Let me know if that answers your question !

[fengduoyin]

That works for me, thanks.

[Dunlewy]

Which N5 stories did you write? I plan to check them out. Thanks!

[Dunlewy]

Sorry! N5 level

[klyyze]

Thanks a lot for wanting to check them out ! There are 14 N5 stories in the library, and 12 of them are Yomimaru originals that I wrote myself, with reviews and feedback from a few peers. The other two are classics: a poem by Niimi Nankichi and a children’s story by Murayama Kazuko.

• Every Morning at the River (川の石)
• Never a Day Off (おれの屋台)
• Wait Here (店のまど)
• The First Day of Summer (白いいと)
• Three Envelopes (三つのふうとう)
• One Umbrella, Please (かさを一本)
• The Sound the Water Makes (みじかい音)
• Ten Minutes Left (あと十ぷん)
• The Gap on the Shelf (本と本の間)
• One Line of Boot Prints (ストーブの前で)
• The Invitation (二まいの紙)
• The Room on the Mountain (山の上のへや)

You can find them all here: Free Japanese Reading Library by JLPT Level | Yomimaru

I’m really curious to hear what you think of them, good or bad !

[Dunlewy]

Thank you! I will take a look at them soon and let you know what I think. I’m always looking for beginner stories.

[klyyze]

We just pushed a change: the link now opens the public library even when you’re logged in, so please give it another try, browsing should be much more enjoyable there. You pick a level and you only get that level, and you can narrow it down by theme, length or grammar point.

In the app you can also filter on a single level without including the lower ones. I agree it’s not the most obvious way we could have built it, so here’s a short demo of how to do it below. Please let me know if that solved your problem and if you have any other question !

[Calyanare]

Awesome, that helps a lot!

[klyyze]

I really hope you’ll find them interesting !

[klyyze]

You’re welcome, don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any other question !

[klyyze]

Thanks again for taking the time to write all this, it’s really detailed and helpful ! And don’t worry about designing around it, a lot of what you describe would help many readers, not only you.

You’re right about the vertical reader: a screen with nothing but the text is much better for immersion in long content. I’ve taken note of it, and of keeping the tools hidden until you actually need them.

On grammar, building an index of trusted external references for each grammar point would take a lot of work, but it’s possible, and I think it would be a really valuable way to back up the AI explanations. A simpler first step would be linking straight to the Bunpro page for each grammar point, I need to look into that.

There’s no grammar SRS in the app yet. You can already add grammar points to your own lists, even if it isn’t perfectly integrated yet (custom lists are on the paid plans), and lists can be exported to Anki, although for grammar the export only carries the pattern itself for now.

I’m curious about the tools you built for yourself, what do you use them for ? And I’m guessing you’re at a fairly advanced level ?

[klyyze]

Hey again everyone ! Just wanted to address a few things I didn’t mention in the post.

The N1 texts haven’t been modernized yet, so you’ll still find old spelling and grammar in some of them.

The library page doesn’t show yet which stories are split into parts, you can only see it in the app. I’ll add it to the page soon. So even if, for example, most N3 stories are shown as 10 to 20 min read in the library, in the app you’ll get 3 episodes of around 5 min of reading for that story so you can read that on the go during your commute or your lunch break (Yomimaru works perfectly on phone, we’ve spent a lot of time tweaking the experience so it’s as intuitive and enjoyable to use on small screens as it is on your desktop).

138 stories are cut into five-minute parts, and when you come back to one you get a short recap: the longer you’ve been away, the more it covers. Nothing is locked, you can read every part in a row.

[YandrosTheSane]

@klyyze

I’m curious about the tools you built for yourself, what do you use them for ?

• OCR to get raw text (discarding furigana) from a video. The main issue a reader have at first is to get his hand on the raw text to be able to learn all the terms. Pre-builts decks are often overwhelming and it’s a lot easier to work with small custom deck as you progress, learning the diff in each new section.

• Currently my issue is recognizing and extracting grammar patterns be able to read any level content and learn outside of the JLPT structure. I don’t care about “levels” I want to be able to crack bit by bit what I’m reading whatever it may be. (but for the last two years it was this).

If you’re uninterested in “graded content” and “JLPT” there aren’t a lot of services that are thought around out giving you “practical generic tools” to learn through your target material only which is what I’d hope(d) Yobimaru could/would be.

@klyyze

And I’m guessing you’re at a fairly advanced level ?

I have a bit of vocab (~5k) and kanji (~1.4k) but very shaky on grammar, (or rather my knowledge is all around the place), I can decipher/vibe through text with pure anger at the world but the reading is still very blurry sometimes.