Stroke order rule 8 – left sweep first

A 左払い hidariharai (lit. “left sweep”) is a slanted, upper-right-to-lower-left stroke; a 右払い migiharai (lit. “right sweep”) is its mirror image: a slanted, upper-left-to-lower-right stroke. This is what they look like in a serif and a sans-serif font.

Diagram showing 左払い hidariharai and 右払い migiharai in two different fonts: serif (mincho) and sans-serif (gothic). — 左払い *hidariharai*, or left sweep, and 右払い *migiharai*, or right sweep.

Stroke order rule 8 says:

Whenever a hidariharai intersects a migiharai, forming an X-shape, the hidariharai is written first.

Kanji stroke diagram showing 左払い hidariharai and 右払い migiharai strokes forming X-shapes in the kanji 父 chichi 'father', 対 TAI 'against', 殺 korosu 'to kill', 務 tsutomeru 'to serve', 愛 AI 'love'. — 父 *chichi* ‘father’, 対 *TAI* ‘against’, 殺 *korosu* ‘to kill’, 務 *tsutomeru* ‘to serve’, 愛 AI ‘love’.

The hidariharai in 愛 AI is more elaborated than the basic shape we presented in the first diagram, but the stroke order is the same.

There are no exceptions to this rule.

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