Designing Kao

[Randy McCall]

I know there has been some discussion in the past on the designing of kao (signature sigils), sometimes seen on nakago.  I'll be posting a couple of items of interest -- in separate posts/comments due to file size -- and invite members to comment and discuss.

An academic recently sent me a copy of an academic article (in Japanese) on the desgining of kao, including descriptions of how various characters were selected and combined, as well as details such as the stroke order for brushing the kao.  I thought some of our members might find it useful, and perhaps would make a few notes in English for those who lack sufficient Japanese.

The pdf is very large in file size, but is presented in this way as reducing it's size makes it unreadable.  It appears to be a scan of a mimeograph...

Designing Kao.pdf

[Randy McCall]

From my own collection, here's a chart for designing kao based on the most fortuitous characters for the person (using seasonal, astrological and Shinto principles), and for identifying where on a document a kao should be placed to engender the most beneficial results... call it feng shui for signatures.

This particular item was a chart belonging to a senior bureaucrat of the Sendai clan, Aki family (noted on the chart).  It is dated "Sendai 160"... or the 160th year of the Sendai fief, which was founded in 1600;  thus the item is dated 1760 AD. 

This folding chart is very small (about the size of a piece of typing paper), thus the skill of the scribe is made plain by the extremely tiny characters brushed on both sides of the chart..  Heavy "cover" papers are glued to two sections so when the chart is folded (similar to how a  map is folded) it is protected by the end papers ... this was a common form of carrying notes or reference material, the style known as Tatamimono.

 

 

[Randy McCall]

Just an an interesting side note:  There was also a thriving business in divination of kao.  In competition for this valuable trade were the Shinto temples vs professional onmyoji, practitioners of onmyodo, a traditional Japanese combination of mysticism / cosmology and natural science.  In the Edo period the onmyoji were licensed and overseen by the Tsuchimikado clan, the official hereditary diviners to the Tokugawa family. 

The following image is of the analysis of a kao by an onmyoji.  The various inkan include the licensing stamp of the Tsuchimikado.  While it's difficult to make out, each line of characters is heavily annotated with much smaller characters brushed in red.

Seen up close, the artistic quality of the calligraphy is impressive; in itself a work of art.  The paper used was the heavy, high quality grade reserved for government use.  The paper is dated 1783.

 

 

[Brian]

Excellent. Thanks for sharing Randy

[Ken-Hawaii]

I had often wondered how important people came up with kao. Great article, Randy!

 

Ken

 

[Randy McCall]

No problem folks, glad it was all useful.  Or at least interesting

If any of our Japanese fluent members could take the time to render some page summaries, I'm sure our non-Japanese literate members would be grateful.