We were recently approached by Newark Shotokan Karate Club regarding making them a nafudakake.
A nafudakake is a name ranking board for a dojo. A new member would have their name added at the bottom of the board in the "mukyu" (ungraded) section and they would progress through the Kyu grades and onto the Dan ranks. At the head of the board there may be Association or Club details and on some nafudakake officials or patrons may also be recorded.
Most of our clients elect to include dan ranks only on their nafudakake, but Newark wanted to explore if Kyu grades could also be included. Kyu grades are typically more transient in their membership and it can lead to a wasted expense for a dojo.
What we proposed in the end was to manufacture all the grade ranking nafuda along with the yudansha members of the club. We would then produce a 2 sided blank where the club could write kyu grade members names in English for themselves. If that member leaves they can flip it over and use the other side, there is also the option of sanding the nafuda down and writing a new name.
The club had identified a wall to hang the nafuda and we worked on a layout to match that space. We ended up with 5 frames each having twenty-two nafuda spaces, so a total of a hundred and ten spaces altogether. This allows for around their seventy members, the ranking nafuda and quite a few slots for expansion. When a member reaches shodan the club will order a manufactured nafuda with their name in katakana. For each nafudakake we make we over manufacture the number of blanks and keep them in shoe boxes marked with the dojos name. So when a new nafuda is ordered it will match with the ones already in the nafudakake.
The club liked the look of the ash nafuda we had used nearly ten years ago on a previous project along with cherry for the grade nafuda. We have not used ash for a while. There is quite a large variance in colour and grain. We used the lighter straight grained timber for the yudansha nafuda and the remaining for the kyu grades and spread the variation around the nafudakake. We really like the end result and it reminded me of the variety in colour of the walling on many of the Japanese dojo I have trained in.
If you have a project in mind just drop us a mail to sotosabisu@btinternet.com
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