Traditional Japanese Dojo Name Shingles

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[Lambdadragon]

I'm posting this for a friend and not really certain how to begin, so I'll just jump in. My friend and I have been renovating our dojo. I've included the following link if you're interested in the woodwork we've completed.

http://www.denveraikido.com/index.php?option=com_rsgallery2&Itemid=8&page=inline&catid=10&id=247&limit=1&limitstart=11

Our sensei would like to have the names of our members on shingles running along the wall as in traditional dojos. First of all, I do not know the name for this, so any help is appreciated, but more importantly, are there any guidelines that any of you might suggest? Size of the shingles? Order of names? I am assuming the first shingle would be for O'Sensei, then the leader of our affiliation, and then our sensei. Is that correct?

I did find a photo example on Yamada sensei't bio page.

http://www.aikido-yamada.eu/yamada_sensei.html

Does anyone else have any photographic examples?

Thanks in advance for your help,
David

[mickeygelum]

Hi David,

The lineage/member board you are describing is called "nafudakake", the shingles are "nafuda".

I have some photos and dimensions at my dojo. I will get them tomorrow and email them to you.

Mickey

[ramenboy]

hi david,

when i read the name of the thread, i thought someone was opening a traditional dojo named 'shingles'... :P

you have a beautiful dojo!

we also have nafudakake at our dojo. the challenge is putting the names on the nafuda...presently we use letraset dry transfer sheets, but they're becoming reeeeeallly hard to find.

not to hi0jack the thread, but how does everybody out there put names on them for new members? it will help for david to know this stuff too

[lbb]

We have a member whose hobby is calligraphy, and who paints the names onto the nafuda. This is done once we're reasonably sure that a new member is going to "stick" ;-)

We also had nafudakake at my old karate dojo, done in much the same way -- founder top row to the left, then kind of going down the lineage, sensei was in there somewhere and then his students below him by rank. The difference was in the numbers. That dojo had so many members that people would have their shodan for a year or two before they'd get a nafuda. Mudansha? Fuhgeddaboutit! In contrast, at my current (small, small-town) dojo, we even have people with no rank at all up there.

[Bronson]

The local Kendo/Iaido instructor never asks people to pay their dues. But, if you haven't paid within the first week of the month he just takes your name off the nafudakake. You just look up one day and notice that your name isn't there and think "oh crap" and promptly get your checkbook out :D

Bronson

[Nick P.]

The local Kendo/Iaido instructor never asks people to pay their dues. But, if you haven't paid within the first week of the month he just takes your name off the nafudakake. You just look up one day and notice that your name isn't there and think "oh crap" and promptly get your checkbook out :D

Bronson

Oooohhh, I like that. Very subtle indeed.

[Michael Hackett]

We use red pine lathing material for the individual nafuda and cut it to six inch lengths. Most "big box" home improvement stores will have it in stock at a reasonable price. Each name plate is thus two by six and one of our yudansha writes the name in English with a Sharpie brand marking pen. They look very good and clean as he is quite an artist. A good sign shop can probably print them out on an adhesive backed vinyl as well and they will look as if they were done by a professional sign painter. If a yudansha achieved his dan ranking at our dojo, his name remains on the board permanently. Mudansha names are removed if the individual quits, moves, dies, or otherwise leaves. As an individual is promoted, part of the "ceremony" is moving his own nafuda to the proper place.

[Lambdadragon]

Thanks to all of your posts which will help us to install a nafudakake.

Regards,
David

[Lambdadragon]

Hi David,

The lineage/member board you are describing is called "nafudakake", the shingles are "nafuda".

I have some photos and dimensions at my dojo. I will get them tomorrow and email them to you.

Mickey

Mickey,

I appreciate your willingness to share your nafudakake photos. They can be emailed to Lambdadragon@aol.com

Regards,
David

[wmreed]

I am planning to update our nafudakake as well. We currently use vinyl rub-on letters, but as a previous poster mentioned they are becoming hard to find.

Has anyone tried this: using an "asian-style" font to write the name, one letter per line, and printing on clear sticker paper which is then attached to the nafuda? I haven't tried it myself, and I'm wondering if the label will be too obviously a sticker.

Our vinyl letters have been an "asian-style" lettering simlar to, but not exactly the same as a free font I found called "Chinese Takeaway", which I found at :

http://simplythebest.net/fonts/fonts/chinese_takeaway.html

Any other fonts that someone might suggest?

Bill

[lbb]

Bill, take a look at Herculaneum -- I believe that's what our nafudake-calligrapher uses. It's different enough to stand out as a wee bit exotic, but not that horrible tooth-grating faux-"Asian".

[wmreed]

Just an update:

I figured out how to use stickers and a computer to make these look nice.

Originally, I printed the name in a column, using MS Word (four columns to a page). One letter per line, of course.

I printed this on an Avery, Clear, Full-page sticker sheet, then cut out a rectangle around the name. I applied it to the wooden "shingle" and it looked like a sticker stuck on a piece of wood. It was less than appealing.

It took me a few days before the solution dawned on me: When cutting out the sticker, I cut it to cover the entire face of the wooden nafuda, being sure to trim it right to the edges. They look beautiful!

I hope this is helpful to others. Good luck!