A seal composed for one name.
hanko.works is a small Japanese company that makes custom seals — hanko, 印鑑 — to order. You type a name; eight designs come back; the one you approve is cut from a single rod of metal in our workshop and posted to you within Japan.
What hanko.works is
A hanko is the seal used in Japan in place of a signature — on a delivery slip, at the bank, at the ward office when you buy a home or register a company. Most are picked from a rack, and a rack stamp shares its face with thousands of others. Ours are composed: an engine lays your characters out in the classical seal scripts (Insou, Tensho, Reisho, Kaisho, Koin, Kaku) and two contemporary ones, seeded to your name so no two customers ever receive the same face.
You choose a design, a shape, a size for the use you have in mind, and one of two metals. Nothing is carved until you have approved the exact vector on screen; that vector — and nothing else — is what the mill cuts.
Kanji, kana and Latin names are all carved as written. A Latin name stays Latin: we never transliterate it into katakana unless you ask.
How an order works
01
Type the name. Eight designs appear, each eligible for particular uses — everyday, bank, registered or company seal.
02
Pick the design, the shape (round or rounded square), the size the use calls for, and aluminium or titanium.
03
Check the face at full size. Only after your approval does the seal enter the queue; it can be cancelled until it is cut.
04
Machined from one solid rod, the face milled to a fixed relief, the rim left whole, then deburred and checked under a loupe.
05
The seal and its first impression are photographed and sent to you, then it ships by Yamato within Japan, free.
What we promise
01
If the face wears or chips within ten years, we re-carve it free.
02
If a ward office refuses a design we marked as registrable, send the slip and we cut it again at no cost.
03
You see the finished seal and its impression before it leaves the workshop.
04
Each face is seeded to its name and cut once. We keep the approved vector so a lost seal can be replaced, never so it can be sold again.
Who we are
We are based in Japan and ship only within Japan. The workshop is one room and one bench; the person who cuts your seal is the one who answers your mail, in Japanese or English, within one business day.
The company details the law requires — trading name, address, the person in charge — are on the legal disclosure page, together with pricing, payment, delivery and cancellation terms.
- Where
- Japan
- Ships to
- Japan only · free
- Metals
- Aluminium · Titanium
- Prices
- From ¥5,000 · tax included · no discounts
- Languages
- English · 日本語
- Guarantee
- 10 years on the face
- Contact
- hello@hanko.works