Radical first, radical last

What is counted

The radical

A group whose kvg:radical value is general. When two groups are kvg:part pieces of the same element and the same number, they are one radical, and the strokes are the union. The character group counts when the mark is on that group.

First

One unbroken run, starting at stroke 1, with some other stroke still to come.

Last

One unbroken run, ending on stroke N, with some other stroke already written.

Split

Two or more runs, so other strokes are written in a gap. Opens and closes is the split that also holds stroke 1 and stroke N. It is included in the split count.

In the middle

One unbroken run that is neither the start nor the end.

The whole character

The radical contains every stroke. It is not counted as first or as last.

Position family

kvg:position on the radical group. left, right, top, bottom, kamae, tare, and nyo are へん, つくり, かんむり, あし, かまえ, たれ, and にょう. Any other value, and a missing value, stay outside the seven. Radical positions uses the same seven names for every top-level slot.

Which radical mark

The first four rows partition the jōyō list. The last row is their sum. A character is in one of the four.

The seven families

One row is one family. The character is counted once. Opens and closes is already inside Split. Middle stays in the table where the count is zero.

Shares, by family

Each bar is that family’s characters, stacked to the same height, so a family of 32 is as tall as a family of 969. The table above has the counts. The number under a bar is the character count.

The radical’s element

One table is one family. A row is the kvg:element on the general radical. Rows are ordered by the count, then by the element’s code point. A short row names its characters. A longer row does not.

Plates

Cinnabar strokes are the general radical. Click a plate to replay. With reduced motion the finished character stays still, and the highlight stays.

The usual place in each family

Forms the files also show

The radical is the character

A handbook list, and what the files show

The 1958 Ministry of Education handbook 筆順指導の手びき, as excerpted in Japanese Wikipedia, 「筆順」, under 「原則では説明できないもの」, lists 繞 written first — 処, 起, 勉, 題 — and 繞 written last — 近, 建, 直. That excerpt does not say that every 辶 or 廴 is last, or that 走 and 是 are first.