Ressources on Japanese/Kana handwriting

[Legion]

So, there are a lot of ressources about how to learn kanji, but I find there are very few things about the minutiae of acquiring a good handwriting in Japanese, notably with hiragana.

For instances, most ressources completely fail to mention that there are multiple ways to draw many of the hiraganas; I'm not talking about alternative kana like the hentaigana, I'm talking about alternative ways to draw the standard kanas. For instance ふ is typically described as being made of four strokes, but there are many renderings of this letter where the first and second stroke and/or the third and fourth stroke are connected, creating at least four possible designs and distinct ways to draw it.

There seems also to be an important aspect of proper hiragana writing which is whether a given stroke should end in a stop (止める), a sweep (払う) or a return (かえる).

There's also the whole problem Renmen (連綿), the connection of several hiragana running together vertically.

Is there a good English-language book about this, or are most avalaible ressources on the subject in Japanese?

[finlay]

I don't know, but there are a few more of these that are non-intuitive, like ン written like an upside-down 2 or 冷 written with マ at the bottom. You kind of just pick it up, in terms of what simplifications or changes you can make.

Also vertical handwriting is very rare, so unless you're studying calligraphy you won't need to know that. (But try a calligraphy book maybe?)

[Melteor]

There is a site in Japanese with a lot of good side-by-side comparisons to show how to do all those things and kanji too.

http://daigotorena.moo.jp/lesson/hiragana-zenpan.htm

http://daigotorena.moo.jp/lesson/hira-gyo.htm
http://daigotorena.moo.jp/lesson/hira-gyo-henka.htm
http://daigotorena.moo.jp/lesson/renmen.htm

http://daigotorena.moo.jp/lesson/bushubetsu-menu.htm