Seals

• Japanese: 落款 (rakkan); 印鑑 (inkan)

Japanese seals have traditionally served a role similar to signatures, on official documents, paintings, and works of calligraphy. They are typically carved from small blocks of stone, and dipped in vermillion ink to imprint a stylized form of the user's name, or another design, onto paper or silk.

Seals most commonly employ white characters, the red filling the negative space. These are called hakubun'in (lit. "white characters seal"), while the reverse, in which the characters are imprinted directly in red, are called shubun'in (lit. "red characters seal").