Notice of cost increases for 2026

 We are holding prices until the end of the year and advise all our customers that the "Shop" page will be updated in late December.

This will be restricted to material cost increases that we are unable to absorb approximately 4.5%

Any order received before the end of December will be billed at our current 2025 rates.

The Aikido Nafudakake

We seem to have had a bit of a run on commissions that are a little more challenging, and take a fair bit additional design time up. 

We were working with Maksym from Poland who was looking for a presentation piece to recognise fifty years of budo of their chief instructor.

It was unusual in a way, because it was important to capture rankings from four separate disciplines. These would normally be on individual nafuda, but that would overwhelm the piece. In the end we used a double width nafuda for the grades and disciplines and balanced the piece with two single nafuda each side.

We had to recreate the Aikido Aikikai logo from scratch as we could not find a suitable vector image online. 

We probably went a little "above and beyond" with this project, but at the end of the day we were celebrating a budoka with fifty years dedication. Worth a little bit of extra time on our part I think.

The nafuda were made from Canadian hard maple as the light colour is best as a background for logo, especially if yellow is included.

It was an absolute pleasure working with Maksym on this one, hope it arrives safely in Poland in the next few days.

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

"Click" to go to - Nafuda section shop page

Top Tip

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.

The big certificate makeover

We recently worked with KD Combat Systems to do an extensive re-vamp on their certificate.

It was a bit of a strange one, because the client wanted to change practically everything, but at the same time wanted to retain as much of the old as possible. A serious nod to the history of the group.

We worked with them and produced a fully custom certificate to meet their specific needs.

New Shodan Certificate

The client wanted to retain the graphic of the tiger and the snake. 

We did offer some high resolution vector alternatives, although generally similar in style they did not gain approval. 

They only had a low resolution image which would not convert to a vector image in our graphics package. In the end we broke the image apart, then converted it, heavily edited it and stitched it all back together before making it a transparency and adding it as a watermark. 

There was probably about six hours work alone and the image comprises of 2898 individual objects.

The original certificate format

The group's hanko was in a sort of a seal script katakana. Although within the hanko and other parts of the certificate KD had been translated into katakana (which doesn't really work), we asked what the KD stood for, which was originally their first dojo, the Kihaku dojo. They also wanted to add Shotokan, so the hanko reads "Kihaku Dojo Sento Shotokan", and is written now all in kanji.

We translate the recipients name and add the grade into the main text. 

The text has changed to a standard Japanese Shotokan format. 

At the request of the group the imperial calendar date was removed at the "proof" stage. 

The reason for this is that the group does not generally hold centralised gradings, the chief instructor may move from club to club, and only grade one or two participants at anyone time. 

They chose just to have the date within the English text. This also allowed the Chief Instructor to prepare a batch of certificates, even if examination dates had not been finalised, or may have been arranged over a two to three month period.

As we regularly say, custom is what we do best. Quite a few hours on the project, probably a bit of a "loss leader", but we are equally happy working with groups that may only order a handful of certificates a year, compared to large groups that may have thirty to fifty members grading multiple times a year.

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

"Click" to go to - Certificates section shop page

Top Tip

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.

The formal - informal nafudakake

We recently had a request from a karateka that wanted to commission a nafudakake for their instructor. However, this was a little different; it was not an individual presentation piece, but a nafudakake for the instructors home dojo.

I suggested a slightly different format may suit the commission, and proposed just using Christian names and using a single nafuda with the instructor's club logo, their Surname followed by family dojo.

We have never used this format before, but as we have said in the past "custom is what we do best". 

We really like the way it turned out, what do you think, does it work well for a home dojo?

 

Nafudakake for a home dojo

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

"Click" to go to - Nafuda section shop page

Top Tip

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.

Examiner Stamps

We recently produced some examiner stamps for Nishikan Martial Arts. 

They requested hanko with both Christian and Surname so we selected the oval profile, which is better suited to a larger number of kana.

We start by producing a translation into katakana, and then resize into the profile template for the stamp.

After production we will do a test stamp to ensure that everything is fully quality controlled before shipping.

Happy stamping guys.

The graphic design and the final inkan in red on the left

The examiner self inking stamps ready for shipping

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

"Click" to go to - Hanko and Inkan section shop page

Top Tip

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.

Senjokai Nafudakake

We recently produced a third nafudakake (name rank board) for Senjokai in Scotland.

The club is growing and they needed more space to display their Yudansha ranks

Many thanks to Senjokai for the installed photos.

 

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

"Click" to go to - Nafuda section shop page

Top Tip

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.

WTKO Participation Certificate

Earlier in the Summer it was a special privilege to be asked to produce the attendance certificates for the WTKO Camp. 

I understand that the certificates were vey well received by attendees.

The Completed Certificates

The WTKO design

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

"Click" to go to - Certificates section shop page

Top Tip

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.