japanese seal - inkan or hanko

[Tturtle]

How can I get a japanese seal? It's the little red stamp with the japanese characters. I want to use it to stamp my paintings.

Thanks

[Amnell]

Look around online for calligraphy supplies (Asian calligraphy) and then look for seals, seal stamps, and other related things.

[Nyororin]

A lot of artists carve their own. It`s not too hard to do, and kids have to make them for school.
The easiest way is to carve it out of a large eraser.

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by Tturtle

How can I get a japanese seal? It's the little red stamp with the japanese characters. I want to use it to stamp my paintings.

Thanks

You do not stamp art work with inkan or hanko. There are other stamps for it (gagouin would be one example), usually carved in seal script. If you stamp your art with inkan, it will look like an orchid with lice.

Originally Posted by Nyororin

A lot of artists carve their own. It`s not too hard to do, and kids have to make them for school.
The easiest way is to carve it out of a large eraser.

You could not be more wrong. Carving a seal requires a lot of knowledge. You can carve them yourself, given that you have a skill in calligraphy and are manually dexterous, knowing what you are doing. It is like calligraphy in wood. Two skills in one. You could order one, too, it costs between 100-300 bucks.

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by ryuurui

You could not be more wrong. Carving a seal requires a lot of knowledge. You can carve them yourself, given that you have a skill in calligraphy and are manually dexterous, knowing what you are doing. It is like calligraphy in wood. Two skills in one. You could order one, too, it costs between 100-300 bucks.

Umm, no. He wants one to stamp a painting. Every artist I know has carved their own.

Kids do indeed make them for school regularly. Eraser stamps are a normal thing, and kits for them are sold all over.

I think that you misunderstood me as suggesting that someone make their own hanko/inkan. That`s something entirely different, and not what the original poster was asking for in the first place.

[MMM]

Yes, when I worked in Japan I got to make a square shaped seal out of stone. This was not my official hanko seal, but something I could stamp calligraphy with, if I felt so inclined.

My "official hanko" is circular shaped and had to be special ordered in katakana. This is the seal I used for official paperwork (bank docs, etc.).

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

Umm, no. He wants one to stamp a painting. Every artist I know has carved their own.

Kids do indeed make them for school regularly. Eraser stamps are a normal thing, and kits for them are sold all over.

I think that you misunderstood me as suggesting that someone make their own hanko/inkan. That`s something entirely different, and not what the original poster was asking for in the first place.

I know, which is exactly why I said that making one requires a skill in calligraphy and carving, where the latter is not so important, as long as you are dexterous. What kids make at school, and what is being pressed on calligraphy are both on a very different level.

Hanko and inkan, as well as stamp used by an artist can be made by a special shop. there are different shops for both. Although most of the artist try to make their own.

There are basically four types of seals used for calligraphy depending on where you press them, and all of them are in seal script (sometimes reisho). Person studying calligraphy begins to learn seal script after studying kaisho, reisho, gyousho and sousho. Tensho (sealscript) is 5th in line, which is why I am trying to explain why it requires a skillful calligrapher that understands seal script to carve a decent seal.

Hope that explains my point a bit better.


edit; oh i know what you mean, i quoted op although he said nothing about what type of stamp he will be using. where on earth did i get the idea he is talking about hanko? possible i had two forums opened and got something mixed up. Anyway, it does not change the fact that carving is far from easy.

[MMM]

It sounds like you are contradicting yourself a little, ryuurui.

Carving may be difficult, but kids in high school do it. An artist only needs to make one, and you now seem to be agreeing that most artists try and make their own.

[steven]

While I know a lot of people make their own stamps for their art, I'm not so sure I'd be able to make a good one... I do a little bit of wood carving, but doing such small detailed work would get me, I'm afraid! It sounds like something that would be fun to try out some day though.

I can't quite remember where, but I've seen an artist who had their stamp carved out of a tree branch stub thing, which had a very cool look. So if you want to get creative you could always try something like that! (although an eraser or rubber style one sounds a lot easier to make).

[ryuurui]

Originally Posted by MMM

It sounds like you are contradicting yourself a little, ryuurui.

Carving may be difficult, but kids in high school do it. An artist only needs to make one, and you now seem to be agreeing that most artists try and make their own.

I am not contradicting myself. I said that what kids are carving, and what calligraphers use those are two different things. Kids do not understand calligraphy, let alone knowing seal script. The seal carving they do is probably a part of their 習字 classes. What I am saying is that making a good seal is not simple and requires a lot of knowledge. In other words, not the carving is the difficult part, but deciding on the characters, and writing them down is. Please understand that seal is a part of calligraphy, and its design, shape, and place it is being pressed at, are all important and integral components of the 作品. Badly carved seal can ruin the whole energy flow in calligraphy or sumi-e.

And also I know now where I got the idea of OP talking about mixing hanko, inkan, and gagouin - look at the title of his post. He asks inkan or hanko, where in fact it is neither of those two.