Japanese Crafts: Keshigomu Hanko

There are lots of different crafts here in Japan. In most parts of the world, people are familiar with origami or kiri-e, perhaps lacquerware or forms of pottery. Where barriers to entry might make you think twice about learning the former two, origami and kiri-e are quite easy to start and don't require any special equipment aside from a good pair of scissors and beautiful Japanese paper (any paper will do in a pinch, though). Today, I'd like to introduce another popular Japanese craft that doesn't require much more than an eraser and a sharp engraving tool: the keshigomu hanko.

When most people familiar with Japan think of hanko, which is just the Japanese word for stamp, normally, it's used in the context of "inkan" meaning a name stamp, and is used in place of a signature in Japan. However, a hanko's design can be anything from a name to flowers or animals, whatever. With the popularity of scrap-booking today, these homemade stamps are a great way to express your creativity and make something unique to yourself.

Keshi-gomu just means eraser in Japanese, keshi from the verb kesu (消す)  "to erase" and gomu (ゴム) from "gum" or "rubber." Nowadays, most all erasers in Japan are plastic and if you can find one from makers such as Mono or other Japanese manufacturers (just look for the white colored ones) you'll be set. The only other things you'll need are a sharp knife like an X-ACTO and/or small sharp carving tools. Michi Hamono makes special rubber carving tools widely used in the keshigomu hanko world, available from beNippon, but you might be able to improvise at your local hardware or craft store.

The first thing you need to do is create a design, most how-to sites recommend drawing it in pencil on tracing paper, although you could probably just design directly to the eraser in a pinch. Next, clean of the eraser which is covered in a fine powder with a wet tissue. Then place the design "penciled side down" on the eraser and rub to transfer the image to the eraser. Finally, you're ready to carve out your design. You'll want to carve out the white parts of the eraser, cutting around the lines at a 45-degree angle for best results. Once you've carved the eraser, use tape to get rid of the residual eraser "junk." Now you're ready to stamp, you do have an ink pad don't you?

Here's a video tutorial from the author of several keshigomu hanko books, Tomomi Tsukui.

With a few simple supplies and a little imagination, you can easily create your own keshigomu hanko, and get a little cultural experience to boot.

For more books on keshigomu hanko and other traditional Japanese crafts such as origami or kiri-e, check out beNippon's large selection of Japanese language craft & hobby books.