Temple stamp book

For a beautiful memento, why not keep a shuuin stamp book to record each temple you have visited?

Shuuin books are beautifully made with pretty fabric covers and 20 or so concertina paper pages. They're sold at almost every temple in Japan for around 500 yen. Buy one at the first temple you visit, and then you can fill up the pages as you travel through Japan.

Each temple has a calligrapher who, for a few hundred yen, will stamp your book with the temple's vermillion red seal, and add the date and temple name in skilful ink strokes. The calligraphy is all in Japanese and can be quite difficult even for Japanese speakers to decipher, so you might want to keep a separate list in English to help you remember which page refers to which temple. But the result? A book full of calligraphy to document the temples visited on your journey through Japan.

Temple stamp book

Available throughout Japan

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