Hiku

引く · Look words up on any web page in Safari

Hiku is a Safari extension. Turn it on, tap Japanese text on any web page, and you get the same dictionary popup as in Yomu, Miru and Kiku, with Add to Anki right there. It works in Safari on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Hiku comes as a small app with the extension inside it. The app is where you check that the extension is on and, when your apps share their setup, where its dictionaries and Anki settings live.

Turning it on

Install Hiku, then turn the extension on in Safari’s settings.

On iPhone and iPad:

1. Open the Settings app, then Apps → Safari → Extensions.
2. Tap Hiku and turn it on.
3. Under Permissions, allow it on all websites (or the ones you read).

On the Mac:

1. Open Safari → Settings → Extensions.
2. Turn on Hiku and allow it on the websites you read.

The Hiku app shows whether the extension is on. If it’s off, Open Safari Settings takes you straight to the right place (on iOS 26.2 and later, and on the Mac). The same steps are in the app under How to Turn It On.

Looking words up

Tap Japanese text on a page and the popup opens beside it, for the word that starts where you tapped. Everything you know from the other apps is there: definitions from your dictionaries, readings, pitch accent, frequency, and word audio. See Lookup and Anki for what’s in the popup.

• While the popup is open, a tap anywhere on the page closes it (even on a link, so you don’t follow it by accident).
• Add to Anki makes a card with the sentence from the page. For a few seconds you can Undo it; then it goes to Anki.

The extension’s menu

Open Hiku from Safari’s extensions menu (the puzzle piece in the address bar) for its settings:

• Tap to look up: turns tapping on or off.
• Japanese text only (on by default): taps on English, numbers and punctuation look nothing up, so ordinary taps on a page still work as usual.
• Which dictionaries the extension is using.
• Anki: when Hiku keeps its own setup, this is where you enter your AnkiConnect address, the API key if you use one, and the deck, then Check and Save. When the apps share their setup, it says AnkiConnect is set in the Hiku app instead.

Word marks

If you mine to Anki, Hiku underlines words on web pages the way Yomu marks its books: words not yet in your mining deck get a line in Hiku’s colour, words you’re still learning a dotted grey line, and words you know stay plain. The marks are drawn over the page, so the page itself isn’t changed. The Mark Words by Anki State setting, under Lookup and Mining, turns them off. More about word marks in Lookup and Anki.

The Hiku app

What the Hiku app shows depends on whether your apps share their setup (see Getting started):

• Shared setup: Hiku uses the dictionaries, word audio sources and AnkiConnect settings you set up in Yomu, Miru or Kiku, and its app has the same Lookup and Mining settings as theirs, plus Setup (shared, or Hiku’s own) and About. Change something here and it changes in the other apps too.
• Its own setup: the extension uses the dictionaries built into it, and you set up Anki in the extension’s menu in Safari. The app then only shows the extension’s status, the steps to turn it on, and its version.

Settings

• Safari: whether the extension is on, How to Turn It On and Use It in Safari.
• Lookup and Mining (shared setup): dictionaries, word audio sources and Anki. See Lookup and Anki.
• Setup and About.
• In Safari, the extension’s own menu: Tap to look up, Japanese text only, and Anki when Hiku keeps its own setup.