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Why are the stroke orders for 右 and 左 different?

右 starts with the vertical stroke, and 左 starts with the horizontal one.
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2011-06-01T02:20:31.227
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question
kanji stroke-order
Stroke order for left and right
Left side of those two words are different originally

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y8aJT.jpg)

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/L7OVb.jpg)

There is some meaning that shorter stroke mean 手のひら "Palm", longer one is 腕
"arm".

Normally, shorter stroke which mean "手のひら" write first most of the time, so
according to original kanji, 右 "Right" need to write a vertical slant stroke
first and 左 "Left" need to write horizonal stroke first.
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2011-06-01T02:36:33.883
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2011-06-01T02:36:33.883
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answer
It has to do with the stroke order of the part underneath it. For this
example, I'll refer to 左 as ナ and エ, and 右 as ナ and ロ. For 左, since the first
stroke of the underneath part (the エ) is horizontal, the ナ is started with the
horizontal stroke. For 右, since the first stroke of the ロ is vertical, the ナ
is also started vertically.

Similarly for 有 and 布. Since 月 and 巾 both start vertically, the ナ also starts
vertically. Can't think of anymore off the top of my head where the ナ starts
horizontally. But the rule is to look to the first stroke underneath the ナ.
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2011-06-01T02:42:02.133
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answer
Although the modern characters are _very_ similar, they show a remarkable
difference when [written in seal
script](http://kanjidaisuki.com/2011/02/22/kanji-week-1/). Since the short
stroke representing the hand is drawn first, and the hands are on the
corresponding sides of the character, the stroke drawn from the character's
meaning to the opposite (e.g. from left to right on 左) is drawn first.

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/LGiRD.png)](http://kanjidaisuki.com/2011/02/22/kanji-
week-1/)

(Yes, I admit it. I lifted this from Tomehane. It's a must read for those
interested in calligraphy.)
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2011-06-11T07:17:11.520
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