"Basic rules for kanji stroke order"

A. It is very important to know stroke count and stroke order when writing kanji. The stroke count is the number of strokes used to write the kanji character. Both stroke count and stroke order help you to write a kanji character properly. The stroke count is also useful when using a kanji dictionary. The kanji for "mouth" looks like a square drawn with only one stroke. However the stroke count of this kanji is three.

The most basic rule for stroke order is that kanji are written from top to bottom and from left to right. Here are some other basic rules.

1.Horizontal strokes are written from left to right and are parallel. (Example: the kanji character for "three" )