{"id":106292,"date":"2023-08-22T13:54:03","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T17:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/japanese-stroke-order\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T05:52:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T10:52:47","slug":"japanese-stroke-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/japanese\/japanese-stroke-order\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Learn Japanese Stroke Order"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learners who self-teach Japanese are notorious for neglecting stroke order, but I am here to help you get your brain and your hand into the authentic Japanese zone.<\/p>\n

In this guide, I’ll explain the key rules of Japanese stroke order, and show you some useful resources you can use to practice your skills. Once you learn stroke order, your Japanese writing will start to look more and more authentic.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1. Go top to bottom<\/h2>\n

For any Japanese character, you start at the top and go to the bottom. This totally makes logical sense since Japanese texts are traditionally written in a top-to-bottom format.<\/p>\n

Hold true to this rule and always start at the tippy-top of any character: Starting at the top is always key for correct stroke order.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We English speakers write all our letters by starting at the left and drawing out strokes towards the right, right? That’s because our texts run left to right.<\/p>\n

So, for Japanese characters, you’ll start by drawing the topmost stroke, whichever stroke extends the highest of all. For example, in the character for “two,” \u4e8c (\u306b),\u00a0<\/em>you’ll draw that top line before the lower line.<\/p>\n

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Source: Wikimedia.org<\/p><\/div>\n

Here’s a serious pro tip for you:\u00a0<\/strong>Try to imagine that your\u00a0kana\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0kanji\u00a0<\/em>are laid out on a grid\u2014you might even want to use graph paper to practice getting spatial arrangements right at first.<\/p>\n

So, they’re all against a grid. The topmost characters are in one row. The middle-height characters are in a second row. The lowest characters are in the bottom row. Start by drawing what’s in the top row. <\/strong><\/p>\n

While drawing whatever is in the top row, you must obey all the following rules before you move on. Once everything in the top row is done, you move down to the middle-height row, and so on.<\/p>\n

Exception:\u00a0<\/strong>This rule is describing standard-length\u00a0strokes. Diacritical marks <\/b>(the\u00a0little dots and dashes which change character sounds) will never come first, even if they’re planted at the very top of the character (see rule #5).<\/p>\n

For example, when writing the kana <\/em>character \u3054,\u00a0<\/em>you’ll draw the top and bottom parts of the C-like shape first, and then you’ll draw the two little dashes (which change\u00a0the syllable from the “ko” sound to the “go” sound) at the very end.<\/p>\n

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Souce: Wikimedia.org<\/p><\/div>\n

These sound-changing dots and dashes are known as diacritical marks.\u00a0<\/b>Even if they’re\u00a0at the very top, they’ll always be drawn last.<\/p>\n

2. Go left to right<\/h2>\n

This is pretty straightforward, right? When drawing\u00a0\u4e8c, you’ll draw both lines from left to right. Congratulations, with these two rules you can now draw\u00a0\u4e8c perfectly! I bet you could even draw \u4e09 (\u3055\u3093 – three) if you were feeling extra ambitious.<\/p>\n

Exception:<\/strong>\u00a0Right-to-left diagonals take precedence to equivalent left-to-right characters and are written first. For example, the character for “father,”\u00a0\u7236 (\u3061\u3061), is drawn in the following order: (1) top left dash, (2) top right dash, (3)\u00a0right-to-left diagonal,\u00a0<\/strong>(4) left-to-right diagonal.<\/p>\n

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Source: Wikimedia.org<\/p><\/div>\n

3. Draw horizontal lines first<\/h2>\n

This rule needs to be combined with rules #1 and #2. The very first stroke you make in a character will be the farther towards the top, the farthest left and it will be a horizontal line.<\/p>\n

If there are multiple horizontal lines, you’ll draw the one that’s highest and farthest left first\u2014and you’ll start drawing strokes from the top and left, extending lines right and moving down.<\/p>\n

The horizontal lines rule\u00a0overrides\u00a0<\/strong>the first two rules in one scenario: If there are vertical lines dropping down through all of the horizontal lines, the horizontal lines will be drawn first.<\/p>\n

It does not matter if the vertical line extends above the horizontal lines or farther left than them.<\/p>\n

Exception: <\/strong>If there is a vertical line in the mix, but it does not\u00a0<\/strong>extend totally from the top to the bottom, it is drawn according to the two previous rules. Horizontal lines are not necessarily drawn before shorter vertical lines.<\/p>\n

Let’s use the character for “year,” \u5e74 <\/strong>(\u3068\u3057),\u00a0<\/em>as an example. The order is: (1) right-to-left diagonal on the top left, (2) top horizontal line, (3) second highest horizontal line, (4) tiny vertical line drawn down<\/strong>, (5) third horizontal line, (6) long vertical line drawn through all horizontal lines.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Source: Wikimedia.org<\/p><\/div>\n

As you can see, that tiny vertical line took its turn based on the top-to-bottom rule. The horizontal lines only take precedence over the very long vertical line passing through them.<\/p>\n

4. Draw very long lines second<\/h2>\n

You know those characters with long, curly lines? There’s plenty of them in\u00a0hiragana<\/em>.<\/a> They’re going to go second, even if they start at the top. For example, the long curly lines in \u3059\u3001\u306c\u3001\u3081 are all drawn second.<\/p>\n

Any long line which extends through numerous other lines will be drawn\u00a0after\u00a0<\/strong>the smaller lines it passes through. This is helpful for keeping everything proportional and spatially oriented.<\/p>\n

5. Add minor dashes, dots and other trimmings last<\/h2>\n

All the tiny symbols which alter syllable sounds (for example, the little dashes next to a character like\u00a0\u3071<\/strong>) will be drawn at the end.<\/p>\n

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Source: Wikimedia.org<\/p><\/div>\n

6. Draw the dividing line first for symmetrical characters<\/h2>\n

That was a little wordy for a quick and easy rule, right? It’s not as complicated as it sounds. Sometimes you’ll encounter a\u00a0kanji\u00a0<\/em>character which has little wing-like dashes flanking it.<\/p>\n

For example, you’ll probably recognize the character for water\u00a0<\/em>\u6c34 <\/strong>(\u307f\u305a).\u00a0<\/strong>This character is drawn in the following order: (1) Middle vertical line, (2)<\/strong> left wing, (3) right wing.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Source: Wikimedia.org<\/p><\/div>\n

Notice that the wings still follow the left-to-right rule.<\/p>\n

7. Draw boxes in three strokes<\/h2>\n

I’m sure you’ve seen little boxes in your beginning level\u00a0kanji.<\/em><\/a> They’re everywhere, so this rule is another doozy. Just look at the character for the number four, \u56db<\/strong>\u00a0(\u3088\u3093\/\u3057).<\/em><\/p>\n

The left side is one<\/strong> line. The top and right sides of the box are one unified line<\/strong>. And the bottom side is one<\/strong> line. Count ’em\u2014that’s three!<\/p>\n

8. Write boxed characters before closing the box up<\/h2>\n

Let’s look at what happens to those box contents.<\/p>\n

When drawing\u00a0\u56db\u00a0<\/strong>completely, the correct stroke order is: (1) left line drawn top to bottom, (2) top line drawn right and down\u00a0<\/em>to form top and right sides of the box, (3) left line inside box drawn top-to-bottom, (4) right line inside box drawn top-to-bottom, (5) bottom line drawn left-to-right.<\/p>\n

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Source: Wikimedia.org<\/p><\/div>\n

9.\u00a0Pay attention to detail<\/h2>\n

This is where you really distinguish your Japanese writing skills. Want all your characters to look like a native Japanese speaker drew them? Then you need to pay attention to all the little details that give characters their standard appearances.<\/p>\n