筆順 · one pair of strokes, two sequences
Same parts, different order
Stroke order is a sequence. The finished character is what that sequence closes into. Sometimes the same strokes, or the same component, are written in a different order depending on the character or on where the component sits. Every plate on this page is a KanjiVG file, and every caption uses that file’s stroke numbers.
The Rules page shows 右 and 左 under Rule 8 of 筆順指導の手びき (Ministry of Education, 1958). This page stays on that one phenomenon and goes wider: more characters with the same crossing pair, 田-like boxes, KanjiVG’s alternative-order files, a component whose internal order changes when it moves, and components the pen leaves and comes back to. Every claim below was read off the KanjiVG files.
On this page
Each plate draws itself in writing order. Click a plate to replay. A cinnabar border marks a KanjiVG alternative-order file. Gray digits are that file’s own stroke numbers. With reduced motion the finished character stays still.
Rule 8: when the horizontal is long and the left-falling stroke short, write the left-falling stroke first. When the horizontal is short and the left-falling stroke long, write the horizontal first.
What the order does here
右, 有, and 布 open with the left-falling stroke: s1 ㇒, s2 ㇐. 希 carries the same pair one step later. Its opening 乂 is s1 ㇒, s2 ㇔/㇏, and the 布 head under it is s3 ㇒, s4 ㇐. 左, 友, 在, and 存 reverse the pair: s1 ㇐, s2 ㇒. In 在 and 存 that second stroke is the start of 亻, and s3 ㇑ finishes it. 灰 and 圧 are the cliff 厂, the same short-horizontal-first order: s1 ㇐, s2 ㇒, and the part underneath comes after. The 1958 guide ties the choice to length. The short stroke is written first, and the long stroke is drawn across it. KanjiVG records that order for these characters.
A 田-like box can be one continuous run, or it can be opened, filled, and closed, with KanjiVG splitting the box around the stroke in the middle.
What the order does here
田 is five strokes in one run: s1 ㇑, s2 ㇕, s3 ㇑, s4 ㇐, s5 ㇐. The inner vertical (s3) comes before the two horizontals that cross it. There is no kvg:part. 由 uses those same five stroke classes in that same order, and the file splits 日 around the vertical: part 1 is s1–s2 (the box opens), s3 is 丨, part 2 is s4–s5 (two horizontals close it). 油 and 届 keep that split, both placing 由 at s4–s8. 町, 男, and 畑 do not split 田. 町 writes it on the left as s1–s5, 男 on top as s1–s5, 畑 on the right as s5–s9, each time with the inner vertical before the two horizontals. The order that actually changes is 果. Its 田 is split the other way: s1–s4 finish a 日, so the horizontals come before any through-vertical; s5 is 木’s bar; s6 is the vertical, marked 田 part 2, and it is also 木’s stem. The vertical 田 writes as s3 is, in 果, s6.
KanjiVG ships a second file when more than one order is in use. Both files draw the same strokes, and each file numbers them in its own sequence.
What the order does here
These are the same marks in another sequence. In the main file of 止, s1 ㇑, s2 ㇐, s3 ㇑, s4 ㇐. The file 06b62-HzFst.svg moves the upper horizontal from s2 to s1: s1 ㇐, s2 ㇑, s3 ㇑, s4 ㇐. 必 in the main file starts with the top dot: s1 ㇔, s2 ㇒, s3 ㇃, s4 ㇔, s5 ㇔. 05fc5-Ten3.svg moves that dot to s3: s1 ㇒, s2 ㇃, s3 ㇔, s4 ㇔, s5 ㇔. The five stroke classes are the same five. On 発, the right half of 癶 is s3 ㇒, s4 ㇏, s5 ㇒ in the main file, and s3 ㇏, s4 ㇒, s5 ㇒ in 0767a-Dg3.svg. Strokes s1–s2 and s6–s9 keep the same classes in both files. Rules already plays 王’s VtLst, 至’s VtFst, and 馬’s Vt6. Those are the same kind of second file.
The plates are components whose internal order changes with position. Components that keep their order are named in the note below.
What the order does here
水 opens on the center hook: s1 ㇚, s2 ㇇, s3 ㇒, s4 ㇏. On the left it is 氵, three strokes from the top. In 泳 those are s1 ㇔, s2 ㇔, s3 ㇀, and 永 begins at s4. The group is marked original=水. It is still one component. What changes is the order inside it. 手 opens with a left-falling stroke: s1 ㇒, s2 ㇐, s3 ㇐, s4 ㇁. The left-hand 扌 turns that over. In 持, s1 ㇐, s2 ㇚, s3 ㇀, and 寺 begins at s4 (original=手). 火 is s1 ㇔, s2 ㇒, s3 ㇒, s4 ㇏: the side strokes, then the long pair. At the bottom KanjiVG draws it as 灬, four dots left to right. In 然 those are s9–s12, each ㇔, and the group is original=火. When 火 stays 火 and only moves to the left, as in 畑, the order stays s1 ㇔, s2 ㇒, s3 ㇒, s4 ㇔/㇏. The file types that last stroke ㇔/㇏, and the sequence of the four strokes stays the same.
Three familiar pairs were checked. Each keeps one order, recorded here. 木 is s1 ㇐, s2 ㇑, s3 ㇒, s4 ㇏. The left 木 of 林 is s1–s4 in that order (the last stroke typed ㇔/㇏). The 木 under 栄 is s6 ㇐, s7 ㇑, s8 ㇒, s9 ㇏. 土 and 士 are both s1 ㇐, s2 ㇑, s3 ㇐. The long stroke and the short stroke trade places in the shape; the writing order stays horizontal, vertical, horizontal. 玉 puts its dot last, s5, after 王’s four strokes (s1 ㇐, s2 ㇑, s3 ㇐, s4 ㇐). 球’s left side is those four strokes only (s1–s4). The dot at s11 is the last stroke of 求.
A component can be one shape in the finished character and two stretches of the writing sequence. KanjiVG marks the break with kvg:part.
What the order does here
In 裏, 衣 opens with s1 ㇑, s2 ㇐. The pen leaves for 里 (s3–s9) and comes back for 衣 part 2: s10 ㇒, s11 ㇙, s12 ㇒, s13 ㇏. In 術, 行 opens as 彳: s1 ㇒, s2 ㇒, s3 ㇑. 朮 is s4–s8. 行 part 2 is s9 ㇐, s10 ㇐, s11 ㇚. 街 is the same break with 圭 in the middle: 彳 s1–s3, 圭 s4–s9, 行 part 2 s10–s12. In 式, 弋 starts at s1 ㇐, 工 is s2–s4, and 弋 returns as s5 ㇂ and s6 ㇔, the dot last. The box 国 — frame s1–s2, contents, close s8 — is this same leave-and-return, and it is played on Rules and Strokes.
The plates are single files. The table is every jōyō character in the Gallery index, 2,136 files, read from KanjiVG.
| Count | Jōyō kanji, or groups, that … |
|---|---|
| 114 | open with stroke classes ㇒ then ㇐. 25 of these are the bamboo crown 竹, whose second stroke is typed ㇐b. |
| 89 | of that 114, open with the plain pair ㇒ then ㇐. This mixes 右 有 布 with 牛, 手, 生, 成, and others. |
| 66 | open with stroke classes ㇐ then ㇒, including 左 友 在 存 and 14 whose head is 厂 (原 反 圧 灰 …). |
| 8 | split 日 the 由 way: two opening strokes, one stroke between, two closing ㇐ (由 油 届 宙 軸 抽 袖 演). |
| 63 | contain a 田 written as one five-stroke run (inner vertical before the two horizontals), with no kvg:part on that 田. 田 itself is one of them. |
| 9 | split that 田 so the vertical returns after the box (果 遇 愚 巣 隅 偶 菓 裸 彙). |
| 121 | place 氵 on the left as ㇔, ㇔, ㇀. |
| 89 | place 扌 on the left as ㇐, ㇚, ㇀. |
| 47 | are groups named 灬 whose strokes are four ㇔ in a row. |
Method. Files: KanjiVG kanji/<5-hex>.svg, snapshot 70a0b7a (2026-09-30), for the 2,136 jōyō characters on the Gallery. Writing order is path order (-sN). A stroke class is the first character of kvg:type, so ㇐b counts as ㇐ and the plain-pair row requires the type strings ㇒ and ㇐ exactly. A part-split is a kvg:part attribute. The 由-type row is a 日 with part 1 (two strokes), exactly one stroke between the parts, and part 2 (two ㇐). The contiguous-田 row is an element=田 group with no kvg:part inside it. The 121 and the second 89 are counts of characters; the 47 is a count of groups. The numbers describe KanjiVG’s order.
06b62-HzFst.svg, 05fc5-Ten3.svg, and 0767a-Dg3.svg. Rule 8: 筆順指導の手びき, Ministry of Education, 1958. Jōyō index: the list used on the Gallery.