Designing Kanji Symbols With Calligraphy Fonts For Your Tattoo Design

As more and more Japanese culture is start to be recognized in a world, Kanji symbols are also getting very popular for designs, especially as tattoo designs.

However, many people do not really understand that there are many different calligraphy fonts which can be applied to kanji symbols, and Japanese people use different styles for a different purpose.

Some of those kanji fonts are unique, traditional and modern styles.

The original kanji style is a primitive, rounded and natural form first written on bone. This style is a less primitive and more formal style.

Many Japanese designers use these styles to create an old fashioned and back to nature feeling like in a Japanese restaurant.

But, as the time goes by, these shapes evolved into more stylised forms.

So, today, this article will show you the 2 of the most stylish and popular fonts we use to write kanji symbols for designs, and actually show you an example of kanji designed with them. You will see so much difference.

This article will be good information for those who want to get kanji for their tattoo designs.

1. SOSHO Kanji Styles – the most modern kanji style and is more cursive than other fonts. Japanese designers start to draw calligraphy with brushes and wanted to make it flowed more smoothly. So this style is developed. This SOSHO is often seen in the Karate and Akido Dojo places, and TV commercials or movies such as Last Samurai. So the style is considered as the most “Japanese look” font for Westerners.
2. MINCHO Kanji Styles – Japanese kanji characters used in everyday newspapers and magazines is written with the MINCHO fonts. In English, it is like the same as Times Roman. If you visit Japan, you will probably see these kanji styles the most. Yet, nowadays, MINCHO with Pop, modern, round design are getting more popular in print and billboard advertising.

Now, you can see the difference between these styles by looking at the following image.

This is the “wind” kanji symbol designed with SOSHO flowing styles and MINCHO formal styles.

Japanese Wind Kanji symbol