An easy way to write kanji in proper stroke order

03. Jun, 2007 Comments

kanji stroke orderWhen learning kanji, a lot of books and teachers expect you to memorize stroke order solely through practice and repetition (does the image remind anybody of their kanji book?). I’m definitely, all about repetition, but what they don’t tell you is that there is actually a way to write kanji in the correct stroke order without a lot of studying and memorization. Granted, you still have to learn what the kanji looks like, and you still have to know how to write it, but in terms of stroke order, there IS a better way.

EVERY kanji starts in the upper-left-hand corner (please let me know if you find one that doesn’t, I’d be very curious). You need to start every kanji somewhere up there, and move from left to right, slowly making your way down to the bottom-right hand corner. Basically, when writing kanji, you go top-left to bottom-right. Analyze a few “step-by-step” kanji stroke orders and you’ll see. It’s just that simple…kind of.

There are a few exceptions to the rule, where you have to draw certain strokes that are slightly less “top” or slightly less “left” than others, but you’ll have to find them out on your own. Still, even with these exceptions, you are still starting in the top-left and moving towards the bottom-right, or, in the case of the image above, bottom-middle (close enough right? And the long stroke on the far right actually starts in the middle-ish top anyways). Kanji takes a lot of practice, but the more you write it and see it, the easier it becomes.

Related posts:

  1. Practice Kana, Kanji, and Particles with Nihongoup

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  • Hey, I believe the kanji for 'kanarazu' starts on the top-right corner! You asked for exceptions. =D
  • chibipudding
    nope, i doesnt...
    wait...which one do you mean? theres a bunch of Kanji phrases for kanarazu... O.o
  • yuri
    yeah. doesn't the stroke for 'kanarazu' start somewhere in the middle?
  • obvious, but i thought i'd add that once you start getting to know simple kanji, you can worry less about the more complicated ones, as you want need to remember every stroke, but just what seperate kanji they are made up of :D
  • hey now - that was going to be a future article.
  • Elizabeth
    err... I might not be right but I think it actually starts at the top left. like the mark on the top left comes first.
  • Ah, im learning the last of hiragana and starting on kana... kanji looks so difficult right now...
    What would you think it would be better to learn kanji?
    Just write it a lot or like flash cards with sounds?
  • Oh, gosh - you're right! Silly me. (_
  • Sexy Beam
    千 (and others based on it) still starts at the top, but kinda mostly to the right. That's the only form I can really think of that really deviates from that rule much, but it's easy to tell from the direction of the first stroke.
  • Josh
    do you know where to start to learn kanji?Because I cannot find a website for it.or books
  • There's a book out there called "Lets Learn Kanji", and "Let's Learn More Kanji". They're basically workbooks where you can practice your Kanji. I haven't bought those books yet because I'm still learning Katakana, then I'll step up to Hiragana. But its worth a shot. You can find those books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Borders...
  • just a quick fyi, before you get too far, you should really be learning hiragana first - katakana is pretty much useless when it comes to beginning japanese. Everything you'll start with is in hiragana and simple kanji, with the occasional name in katakana. If you're not too deeply dug into learning katakana, I'd suggest switching over to hiragana as soon as possible! Good luck!
  • I think you should look into finding just general "learning japanese books." Those'll get you started in the right direction and integrate kanji learning with everything else learning.
  • Kaito
    I want to make a point to say that when you have stroke intersecting a "component" as in 中, you draw the "component" first, then the intersecting stroke.
  • I actually have a quick question. I do want to learn both hiragana and katakana, but would I be better off learning hiragana first? or katakana, then hiragana?
  • Sexy Beam
    Do what Koichi says and study Hiragana first. If you start reading any actual Japanese you'll see a lot more hiragana, because all the particles and verb endings and some short words are written in it, so you'll definitely need to know that. Katakana is more useful for mostly foreign names and words, which you'll need to know eventually, but not being able to use them is no fun at all. It shouldn't take more than a few weeks to learn both completely, though, if you work at it. And you *need* to work at it if you want to learn Japanese!
  • Amy
    Actually, don't characters like 愛"ai" (with the diagonal first stroke) begin in the upper right and move downward to the left? You could even say 光"hikari" kind of starts in the upper middle because of that first vertical middle stroke...right?

    Great article, by the way ^ ^
  • O-O-taku
    Eek! all I really know is Katakana... From reading anime titles!!! I really am a nice person, though. I'm just not a very good student of anything. I hate being a statistic.
  • korru
    Err... I just write it how I see it. I know it's wrong but I keep telling myself that as long as it looks the part I can play the gaijin card if anyone gets suspicious... The only time I really go by stroke order is if I can actually see the strokes (like if it was written with brush).
  • Una
    That`s true. Now we only have to memorize all shapes of kanji, but it makes it easier ^^
  • Claudia
    I have been practicing writing this and my lurning curve is kind of at a plateue right now...I keep forgetting the shapes..
  • Nicholas
    道, michi, starts with the section on the right and ends with the radical surrounding it.
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