Seals are used less frequently now than in the past, but they are still an important tradition that are handed down from generation to generation, Choi said. It has always been a reliable identification tool," he said. Thus, the seal provides another point of verification. "People's signatures aren't exactly the same every time. "Some make fake seals that look similar to the original ones, but if they are enlarged 500 times or more, huge differences from the original are revealed owing to differences in the materials and the carvers' styles," he said.Ĭhoi said a seal is a kind of a supplementary item that compensates for the flaws of signatures.
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He said a seal has a clear purpose - it is used for legal verification in official documents and thus shouldn't be counterfeited by others. However, he lost his job after a copy machine was introduced.Ĭhoi, who has been carving seals and stamps for about 40 years, said that carving a new one is always a challenge. With his skillful calligraphy and abundant knowledge of Chinese characters, he worked as a scribe at a school for about five years until he served in the military. He started learning calligraphy and Chinese classics from his father when he was six years old, having dropped out of school owing to financial difficulties. I repeatedly change the design until both of us are satisfied with the resulting product," he said.
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"I always exchange ideas on how to design the seal with the customer. When creating a seal for someone, usually the letters of their name are written on paper in "hangeul" (the Korean alphabet) or Chinese characters and each is rendered in a different style for artistic composition. He said a seal, one of the few remaining oldest human craftworks through which people can leave a trace or communicate with others, is still being used today in Korea, along with China and Japan. The artisan explained that a seal is engraved with the name but can also include a picture if a customer wants. Thus, it should reflect their life and personality," Choi said in an interview with The Korea Times.
"A seal is a signature unique to one person. However, he said a seal or "injang" is not simply a carving of a name but also a reflection of someone's life and personality. He carves a person's name on a seal made from any material, usually ivory, stone, metal or wood.
Korea Times photos by Shim Hyun-chulĪ square inch of space might be too small a canvas for ordinary people, but for master seal maker Choi Byung-hun, it can be a huge one on which he can create anything. Choi was named a Master Artisan in Seals by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in 2001. Master seal maker Choi Byung-hun shows his seals and demonstrates the seal making process in his studio in Suyu-dong, northern Seoul.
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