Kanji stroke order

[joshbaker]

Josh desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!
Does anyone know where I can find information on the stroke order for drawing kanji? Does stroke order even matter?
Also, I am interested in learning about the meaning behind why kanji are drawn the way they are. E.g. jin looks like a person (has 2 legs and a body)...
I've heard that each kanji has a story to tell...

Arigatou gozaimasu

[bennatan]

Stroke order is very important.

Check http://kakijun.main.jp

The fourth button on the right gets you onto a screen with a space for pasting or typing in a character. When you enter the stroke order comes up.

I would have expected a stroke order feature on the site. This was the answer I received from the staff:
"Regarding the stroke order, have you looked at the Kanji Closeup for the lessons? These have worksheets which show the steps of writing the Kanji that are very helpful. I hope this is what you were looking for!"

I have yet to find a Kanji Closeup with stroke order. Has anyone seen the "steps of writing Kanji"?

Bennatan
Arad

[Belton]

Stroke order is important for good handwriting especially if you ever start to write in a cursive style.
I would recommend you learn the general rules rather than memorise stroke order for each character individually. There are some kanji that have stroke orders different from what you might expect, but there aren't many. ( check out 右 and 左)
The general rules can be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke_order

As for the etymology of kanji, I recommend Henshall's book as a reference (but not really a way of learning kanji)
http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Japan ... 0804820384

There is a good online reference at
www.kanjinetworks.com
But it can be sparse on detail.
(but there seems to be a problem with the site at the moment. Check back later, hopefully the owner will have fixed it)

Every kanji might have a story but only a couple of hundred are actually pure pictograms. (Shokei moji and Shiji moji) The majority are more complex than that and have a mix of phonetic and ideographic elements. (Keisei moji)

For stroke order diagrams you might find
http://www.saiga-jp.com/kanji_dictionary.html
more accessible.

[hatch_jp]

http://www.csus.edu/fl/japanese/gahoh/e ... nji-e.html

Plz chech out the site.

[Drabant]

I like this site both for showing the Kanji stroke order, and their cursive form.
http://yamasa.cc/members/ocjs/kanjidic. ... h?OpenView

WWWJDIC also has links to images with stroke orders: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi- ... dic.cgi?1B

There is also a Kanji stroke order font available:
http://sites.google.com/site/nihilistorguk/

[joshbaker]

Ohayo/ konnichiwa/ kombanwa

Arigatou gozaimasu Drabant, hatch_jp, Belton, and bennatan!

Josh