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Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Club and Personal Hanko

A 24 x 24mm standard club hanko, the kana are katakana and kanji.

Also a personal hanko producing an oval inkan. Most personal hanko are 12mm diameter and this is like an "everyday" hanko for personal use in Japan and would normally just have the surname. 

We are regularly asked to produce a hanko with both Christian and Surname. There are too many kana for a small round stamp so we  recommend an oval design with dimensions of 16 x 11mm is used. 

In the West it is common practice to just use your Christian name on a hanko (the name you are known by). In the East people may have been friends for 40 or 50 years, but would still call each other by their Surname. 

Although it is not "normal" in Japan, I think it is much more common in the West to be known by your full name. When perhaps using just the Christian name is too informal and using a title and Surname too formal, a happy balance perhaps.


Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

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Sunday, 29 May 2022

Kanban for Norway

As part of a larger shipment to a club in Norway was a Dojo Nameboard. 


We incorporated the Inyo, the symbol of the JKA and the text in katakana and kanji for Baerum Shotokan Karate Club and added their name in Norwegian at the bottom. 




A maple veneered board was used in our standard black frame.

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.


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Dojo Kun for Norway

As part of a larger order we were asked by a JKA club in Norway if we could manufacture two Dojo Kun that would be big enough for students to recite from during the rei.

Norwegian Dojo Kun

Our client sent us the Norwegian text for inclusion in the project.

If you would like to commission a dojo kun plaque for your dojo just drop us an E Mail to sotosabisu@btinternet.com

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.


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Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Team Black Belt - Hanko

A little Hanko for Team Black Belt, kana in katakana and kanji.


Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

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Sunday, 22 May 2022

Fully Custom Shito-Ryu Dan Certificate

 We have been working with Genbu-kai UK to produce a traditional format Shito-Ryu Dan certificate. 

Fully Custom Shito-Ryu A3 Dan Certificate

Apologies for a long post, this was a lot of work and we thought you would be interested in the process.

Our experience is very much  based in the Shotokan Ryu and we don't have the knowledge to provide script translations, but we were interested to see if we could be of  service for this enquiry.

Our customer wanted to keep very much to the style of their existing International Federation Certificate both in border and text. However, they did need to make adjustments to the issuing authority so it represented the devolved National Association rather than the International Federation.

Our first step - Establishment of authority to issue Dan Certificates. 

We do not "Police" the issuing of authority, but we do make enquiries and undertake some research to authenticate a request for Dan Certificates. On a small number of occasions customers have "withdrawn" from an enquiry when we have politely asked what we consider "reasonable" questions. 

As an existing format Dan Certificate we had been provided with a photo of  our clients Rokudan issued by Shihan Fumio Demura. The author of quite a few books that had sat on my bookshelf for 20 years! Our customer is recognised as the International Federation's representative in the UK.

We started by establishing the kanji used on the certificate so we could insert them into our graphics package.

右の者, Migi no mono means right person, the persons name who is written in the column on the right of this line of vertical text.

糸東流空手道,  Shito-ry karate-do

参段,  Sandan, 3rd dan

允に授與する, Awarded to

玄武会連合王国, Genbu kai rengo-okkoku, Genbu kai UK

We added the column for the imperial calendar date, changing the era to the new imperial era and added the Chief Instructors details.

The customer wanted to retain the border, but we could not source it anywhere. Our work around saw the client sending us an existing blank dan grade certificate, which we then had commercially scanned. We then had remove all the background and text to just leave us with a border. It turned out to be about four hours work in itself.

The kamon did not scan well and we could not find one on the internet that was of a high enough resolution, so we created one from scratch in the graphics package.

Last but not least was to recreate the hanko. Although we have searched for over ten years for a seal font we have never managed to access one. However, for this projects we made further enquiries in Japan and managed to access font from a Tokyo based font factory. The new Association kanji were transposed into the seal font and the inkan positioned on the certificate.

How long did it take? Well we lost track of hours, perhaps just as well because it would not be commercially viable to do. An estimate, about 16 hours over a 6 week period. 

Did we enjoying doing it, absolutely. 

The first batch of certificates are awarded.

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.


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Sunday, 15 May 2022

Seal Script Hanko for Dan Certificates

When we produce dan grade certificates the standard is to have the inkan embedded in the certificate. 

The other option is to order the hanko from ourselves and print the inkan onto the certificates yourself. Here are Association, Ryu (Shotokan) and Shuseki Shihan Hanko. 

Association Hanko

Ryu (Shotokan) and Chief Instructor Hanko

 A bit like "crisps in" or "crisps out" of a sandwich. Are you a "Inkan embedded" or a "Inkan after" type person? 

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

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Kyu Certificate for Red Sun Karate

It is great to be able to support another club in upgrading their Kyu certificates. 

We incorporated their logo and added a hanko with a block style font. 

We used our standard traditional JKA style text with an English translation below for the recipient. 

The certificate is produced in a high resolution pdf set up with crop marks for professional printing by the customer. A one-off cost to the club and no chances of anything getting lost or damaged in the post.

A4 Karate Kyu Certificate

So if you are thinking of updating your certificates with either a full or semi custom version just drop us a e Mail and we can start developing a graphic for your approval.

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.


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Shotokan Plaque

We recently made a Shotokan plaque for a customer based on our "Kanban", dojo name board range. We like how it turned out and think it would work well in this vertical format for any Ryu.

Shotokan Plaque

Shotokan 

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

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Saturday, 7 May 2022

A3 Dan Certificate for Shin -Gi-Tai

Another new Dan Certificate, this one headed to Scotland.

 
We recently worked with Shin-Gi-Tai In Scotland to produce a template and a couple of Dan Certificates.

We communicate mainly by E Mail, it helps with keeping good records, but sometimes it works better just picking up the phone and chatting through all the various options. (Calls limited to UK Only)

So if you are thinking of updating your certificates with either a full or semi custom version just drop us a e Mail and we can start developing a graphic for your approval.

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.


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If you are accessing this site on your phone you may wish to view the "Web version" and access the menu in the side-bar to navigate. Just scroll down for the link.


Seal Script for Hanko

 We now have  a seal script available for Hanko, thanks to recent arrangements with a font foundry based in Tokyo.

Typically these images will be used in the production of certificates, but will also be available as self inking stamps as well.

Shito Ryu Hanko in Seal script

We will use your existing translation or produce a translation for your Association. We then request the seal script font from Japan and once we receive it we need to import it into our graphics package, change it to a vector image, separate into individual kanji and then build up a hanko design. There is quite a lot of work involved, but we are happy to offer this service as a bit of a "loss leader". The cost to cover the purchases from Japan will be an uplift of £2/per kanji on the standard rate of the hanko purchased. So the 9 kanji Association stamp would be an additional £18, The 4 kanji Chief Instructor stamp just an additional £8 and the ryu authentication stamp with 3 kanji an additional £6.With communications back and forth to japan it is also likely to add a few days onto production times. Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

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If you are accessing this site on your phone you may wish to view the "Web version" and access the menu in the side-bar to navigate. Just scroll down for the link.