As I travelled around Japan, I realized that there are so many rubber stamps on every check point, such as stations, museum, castle, and other touristic places. Each of these humongous stamps has their own unique illustration representing the respective place.

The obsession over rubber stamp in Japan started with Goshuin. It’s a stamp given to the visitors of a temple or shrine by the monk. Normally the stamps collected in a book called shuincho. Bring the book to the monk in the temple, and they are going to stamp and write on top of it.

The Japanese keen on illustration and craftsmanship make the existence of this traditional kind of souvenir still going on even until now. As you can see on the book of rubber stamp of Japanese stations, almost all illustration seemed handcrafted. They are grungy and not perfect. The rounded stamp is normally around 3.5inch wide. It makes the detail visible enough.

Collecting stamps all over Japan is definitely a must for designers and artists. It’s a free souvenir that you can’t get tired of collecting.