The left hand column of the table has been optimized to have more common kanji than the right hand column. It is recommended to begin your scan vertically, left column first, as this will result in a quicker find ( you will be scanning the most common of the common kanji ).

Counting Kanji by strokes is not completely straight forward but you'll probably be close enough to quickly find the names of the sword smiths you are searching for. For example, 一 = 1, it is just one stroke, so 二 = 2 and 三= 3, simple enough. But 口 also equals 3, not 4 as you would suspect. The left hand side of the square is written first, then the top and right stroke is written as one stroke, followed by the bottom stroke last. We should also keep in mind that the most basic rule is that individual strokes are drawn from from left to right and from todiv to bottom and the Kanji are built up that way also. Of course all rules are made to be broken and yes, there are excedivtions to this rule as well.

So for a kanji like 田 ( Ta or Da ) , you would start with the outer left of the box from top to bottom (1), then the single top and right hand stroke from left to right, then top to bottom (2), then the vertical stroke of the centre cross from top to bottom (3), then the horizintal stroke of the cross from left to right (4), followed lastly by the bottom stroke from left to right (5). Always working our way from left to right and todiv to bottom.

So 田 is actually 5 strokes in total, not 6 strokes as you may have originally expected.

For more information on Kanji Stroke Count, visit the Kanji Stroke Order divage on Alan R Miller's Web page.