KANJI QUEST · Commission
Your Kanji,
hand-drawn in Japan.
A one-of-a-kind kanji design, crafted for you by a Japanese designer in Aomori. For tattoos, gifts, logos, and heirlooms you keep for life.
From $89 · Ready in 7 days · Worldwide
STUDIO WORK
Ten names. Ten pieces. Every stroke by hand.
These were brushed in the studio in Aomori, one piece per name. Nothing here is a font, a filter, or a template. Every character was chosen for a reason — and below each piece you can read exactly what that reason was, character by character.
SAMPLE · WATERMARKED
FOR THE NAME “EMMA”
恵真
E-MA
Two characters, two syllables. The shortest piece here that still says something complete: grace, unfalsified.
CHARACTER BY CHARACTER
恵
E
Grace. A kindness given without being earned.
A spindle drawn above 心, the heart — something turned over and over in the chest until it is given away.
真
MA
Truth. The state of a thing before anyone altered it.
Not honesty in the moral sense. The oldest use of 真 meant "filled to the brim — nothing added, nothing missing."
Written for the name EMMA. Your name would produce entirely different characters.
SAMPLE · WATERMARKED
FOR THE NAME “JULIA”
朱麗空
JU-RI-A
Read downward, the name becomes a red bright enough to burn into open sky. The brush was loaded heavily for 朱 and allowed to run dry by the last stroke of 空.
CHARACTER BY CHARACTER
朱
JU
Vermilion. The red of shrine gates and old lacquer.
A tree with a mark cut into its trunk — the red heartwood found inside. One of the oldest named colours in Japan.
麗
RI
Radiant beauty. Beauty that arrives as a matched pair.
A deer seen head-on, its two antlers drawn symmetrically. The character means beautiful because the pair is even.
空
A
Sky. Also emptiness.
穴, a cave, above 工, a tool that bores through — a hollow opened on purpose. Japanese uses one character for both the sky and the void.
Written for the name JULIA. Your name would produce entirely different characters.
SAMPLE · WATERMARKED
FOR THE NAME “SOPHIA”
想妃亜
SO-FI-A
Sophia means wisdom in Greek, so the first character had to be 想 — the mind written over the heart. 妃 gives it rank. 亜 leaves the sentence deliberately unfinished.
CHARACTER BY CHARACTER
想
SO
Thought. To hold a picture in the mind.
相 — a tree beside an eye, meaning to look closely — placed directly above 心, the heart. Thinking was never filed apart from feeling.
妃
FI
Consort. A queen holding rank in her own right.
女, woman, beside 己, self. Not a wife attached to a king — a woman with her own standing at court.
亜
A
That which follows. Second, but not lesser.
A plan view of an ancient tomb foundation. It became "sub-" and "next," and it is the 亜 in 亜細亜 — Asia.
Written for the name SOPHIA. Your name would produce entirely different characters.
SAMPLE · WATERMARKED
FOR THE NAME “MATTHEW”
馬天雄
MA-TE-O
Matthew becomes Mateo when it crosses into Japanese sound. Horse, heaven, and the greater of the pair — read top to bottom, an animal running under an open sky.
CHARACTER BY CHARACTER
馬
MA
Horse.
A pictograph. The four dots at the base were once the legs, the strokes at the top the mane. It has barely changed in three thousand years.
天
TE
Heaven. What is above.
大, a standing person with arms outstretched, and a single line drawn across the top of the head. Heaven is defined by where a human being ends.
雄
O
Male. Heroic. The greater of a pair.
Built on 隹, a short-tailed bird. It first distinguished the male bird, then came to mean anything magnificent.
Written for the name MATTHEW. Your name would produce entirely different characters.
SAMPLE · WATERMARKED
FOR THE NAME “MIA”
実阿
MI-A
The shortest name here, and the hardest to balance on the page. Substance, and the sound a mouth makes before it has decided what to say.
CHARACTER BY CHARACTER
実
MI
Fruit. Substance. What actually is.
A roof, 宀, over goods strung on a cord — a house with something real inside it. The same character means "fruit" and "reality."
阿
A
The bend of a hill. Also the first sound.
A mound, 阝, beside 可. In Buddhist use 阿 carries the sound "a" — the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, the noise a mouth makes when it simply opens.
Written for the name MIA. Your name would produce entirely different characters.
Not every name wants beauty.
The wicked. The void. Characters built to describe the things people are afraid of. Some people want their name to carry weight, edge, or darkness — and this writing system can carry all of it. Four thousand years of characters did not only record beautiful things. Tell us the feeling and we will find the character for it.
SAMPLE · WATERMARKED
FOR THE NAME “JACK”
邪空
JA-KU
邪 above 空 is a wickedness with nothing standing behind it. We did not soften either character. This is the piece people either want immediately or not at all.
CHARACTER BY CHARACTER
邪
JA
Wicked. Crooked. Malevolent.
牙, a tusk, beside 阝, a settlement. It began as a place name and hardened into the character used for demons, ill intent, and anything off the straight line.
空
KU
The void. Emptiness. Also sky.
穴, a cave, above 工, a boring tool — a hollow made on purpose. In Buddhist writing this is the character for emptiness itself.
Written for the name JACK. Your name would produce entirely different characters.
SAMPLE · WATERMARKED
FOR THE NAME “FREYA”
風礼耶
FŪ-RE-YA
A Norse name written with a Japanese wind. Weather, then honour, then a question nobody answers.
CHARACTER BY CHARACTER
風
FŪ
Wind.
A sail, 凡, wrapped around 虫, an insect. The old belief was that wind carried insects into being — so the creature was written inside the weather that made it.
礼
RE
Courtesy. The bow made before a fight, not after.
示, an altar with offerings on it. 礼 is respect performed as an action in front of something greater — not a feeling, a movement.
耶
YA
A spoken question mark.
A particle with no meaning of its own. Its entire function is to leave a sentence open. It closes the name by refusing to close it.
Written for the name FREYA. Your name would produce entirely different characters.
SAMPLE · WATERMARKED
FOR THE NAME “CHRIS”
紅梨澄
KU-RI-SU
The name travels downward from heat to stillness: a red that had to be worked for, a tree that fruits late, and water that has finally stopped moving.
CHARACTER BY CHARACTER
紅
KU
Crimson. The red of dyed silk.
糸, silk thread, beside 工, work. The colour is named after the labour of dyeing it — a red you cannot find, only make.
梨
RI
Pear tree.
木, a tree, under 利, a blade cutting grain. The Japanese pear is autumn fruit — the tree that gives late, after everything else has finished.
澄
SU
Clear. Water that has settled.
氵, water, beside 登, to climb. Clarity is not a property here — it is what happens after the sediment has fallen and stopped moving.
Written for the name CHRIS. Your name would produce entirely different characters.
SAMPLE · WATERMARKED
FOR THE NAME “LUCAS”
琉香栖
RU-KA-SU
Blue stone, then a smell, then a place to return to. Written in that order because a place you return to is remembered by its smell before anything else.
CHARACTER BY CHARACTER
琉
RU
Lapis. Precious blue stone.
Built on 玉, jade. It is the 琉 of 琉球 — Ryukyu, the island chain south of Japan. The character carries salt air with it.
香
KA
Fragrance.
禾, a stalk of grain, above a sign for sweetness. The original fragrance in this language was cooked rice, not flowers.
栖
SU
A roost. The place one returns to.
木, a tree, beside 西, west — a bird settling into a tree as the sun goes down. Not a house; a place chosen again and again.
Written for the name LUCAS. Your name would produce entirely different characters.
SAMPLE · WATERMARKED
FOR THE NAME “OLIVER”
織理羽
O-RI-BA
Weave, then grain, then feather. A name that describes how something is made, and then lets it leave the ground.
CHARACTER BY CHARACTER
織
O
To weave.
糸, thread, beside 戠, a mark. To weave is to record — the same character family gives us 識, "to know."
理
RI
Reason. The grain running through a thing.
玉, jade, beside 里, a field. It is the vein inside the stone that the carver must follow. Japanese still uses this character for logic, science and truth — all of it built on the idea that things have a grain.
羽
BA
Feather. Wing.
A pictograph of two feathers side by side, drawn four thousand years ago and still legible as feathers today.
Written for the name OLIVER. Your name would produce entirely different characters.
All artwork © KANJI QUEST / Suu Yoshida. Samples shown here are watermarked and reduced in resolution. Commissioned pieces are delivered as full-resolution PNG + SVG with a personal-use license.
Choose Your Plan
Three ways to commission.
All plans include original hand-drawn artwork, meaning research, and high-resolution files.
Hand-brushed
One kanji, brushed by hand.
- —1 kanji or word
- —Brushed by hand in our Aomori studio
- —High-resolution scan (PNG)
- —A short video of your kanji being written
- —One round of revisions
- —Ready in 7 days
Standard
Your name, in three styles.
- —2–4 kanji (name or word)
- —3 style variations
- —High-resolution PNG + SVG
- —Meaning & story PDF
- —Personal use license
- —Delivered in 15 days
Premium
Signature piece, commercial rights.
- —Full name + optional family-crest motif
- —Multiple styles, up to 5 variations
- —Master-quality print-ready files
- —Behind-the-scenes brush video
- —Commercial-use license
- —Delivered in 15 days
We're a small studio. Timelines depend on our current queue — if we're fully booked, we may need more time. We'll always confirm the schedule with you before we begin.
Planning a tattoo? Have your kanji reviewed by a native Japanese designer first — see the kanji tattoo page.
How It Works
From inquiry to delivery.
Inquire
Send us a short message with your name, the meaning you want, and how you'll use the design (tattoo, gift, logo, etc.).
Discuss
We reply within 2 business days with a few kanji candidates and a short note on their meanings — so you can pick what resonates.
Create
Once we agree on direction and you pay the invoice, we draw the design by hand and refine it in the studio.
Deliver
You receive the final files, plus a short PDF on the meaning. One round of minor revisions is included.
About the Studio
Made by hand. In Japan.
Kutoutenis a small Japanese design studio based in Aomori, at the northern tip of Japan's main island. We've been working with kanji professionally for over a decade — shaping letters, logos, and brand identities for Japanese and international clients.
KANJI QUEST is our way of sharing that craft with the world. Every commission is drawn by hand. No templates. No outsourcing. Just kanji, made carefully, one piece at a time.
Kutouten (句読点)means “punctuation marks” in Japanese — the small marks that give shape and rhythm to written language. Our work is in that spirit: small marks, drawn with care, to give shape and rhythm to your story.
FAQ
Common questions.
Can I use my design as a tattoo?+
Yes. All plans allow personal use, which includes tattoos. Every plan comes with a high-resolution file your tattoo artist can work from.
Can I use the design for my business or brand?+
The Premium plan includes a commercial-use license. If you're on Hand-brushed or Standard and later want to use it commercially, you can upgrade.
What if I don't know which kanji I want?+
That's exactly why this service exists. Tell us about yourself — your name, personality, or the meaning you're drawn to — and we'll propose candidates.
How long does it take?+
Hand-brushed is ready in 7 days. Standard and Premium are delivered in 15 days. These are counted from the day we receive your payment. If we're fully booked, we'll always confirm the schedule with you before we begin.
Who makes the designs?+
Every piece is made by hand at Kutouten, our small studio in Aomori, Japan. No outsourcing, no templates.
Start Your Commission
Tell us what you'd like.
Hand-brushed: you pay now, we email you within 48 hours, and your piece is ready in 7 days. If we can't take on your request, you get a full refund. Standard and Premium: send your request first. Nothing is charged until we agree on the design.
Ready to commission your kanji?
Tell us your name, your story, or the meaning you're drawn to. We'll reply within 2 business days.
Request Your DesignFrom $89 · Worldwide · Personal response from our studio