和風鳥虫篆 · bird-and-worm seal script
A name, given wings.
手彫りの印。世界に認められた、
内村天風の一刀。
Hand-carved seals by Tempoo Uchimura — a living master of his own original bird-and-worm script.
鳥虫篆 · The living script
Some letters are meant to fly.
鳥虫篆 — bird-and-worm seal script — is among the oldest ornamental forms of Chinese 篆書. Its strokes do not merely spell a word; on close looking they resolve into birds in flight and insects at rest.
和風鳥虫篆 — the Japanese-style bird-and-worm script — is Tempoo Uchimura's own invention. No one carved it before him. Every seal he cuts is written in a language he authored.
篆刻, the art of seal carving, was inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage in 2009. He works within that lineage — and extends it.
The master
The hand behind the seal.
内村天風Born 1955. From the 雀庵 atelier — the “sparrow hermitage” — in Habikino, Osaka, Tempoo Uchimura has given a lifetime to carving names into stone.
He performed calligraphy in France and Switzerland in 2001, and exhibited solo in Guam in 2016, alongside shows around Osaka and Kobe.
His 篆刻源氏物語 — the whole Tale of Genji rendered as bird-and-worm seals in pure gold leaf — was featured in the 新美術新聞 in 2015. For a decade, his zodiac seals have marked the New Year in the published series 心に残る和の年賀状.
Not a title — 篆刻 bestows none — but in the plainest English: a national treasure in the making.
篆刻源氏物語 · The Genji seals
Fifty-four chapters. Fifty-four seals.
The Tale of Genji is a thousand years old and runs to fifty-four chapters. Tempoo carved every one of them — each chapter cut as a bird-and-worm seal, finished in pure gold leaf.
雲隠
And then there is 雲隠 — Vanished into the Clouds.
A chapter that has a title and no text: what happens in it was held to be beyond writing. He carved that one too. Nothing is missing from the series but the words.
The series was featured in the 新美術新聞 in 2015. Digitized with HACKKTAG, it was shown at the Kyoto Station Building, 7F East Plaza, June 23 – August 23, 2026.
Your name, carved like theseA selection
View all 54 chapters
All 54 chapters and 雲隠, in order.
来歴 · Provenance
The record.
Only what can be documented. Where the work has been shown, and when — nothing claimed here that cannot be shown.
篆刻 — the art of seal carving itself — was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009.
That standing belongs to the craft, not to any one carver. He works within that lineage, and extends it with a script of his own.
Where the work has appeared
心に残る和の年賀状
Impress Mook · 2016–2026, ten consecutive years
新美術新聞
美術年鑑社 · 2015
Kyoto Station Building
Digital exhibition, 7F East Plaza · 2026, with HACKKTAG
Guam
Solo exhibition · 2016
France & Switzerland
Calligraphy performance · 2001
By year
- 2026Digital exhibition of 篆刻源氏物語, Kyoto Station Building 7F East Plaza23 June – 23 August 2026, with HACKKTAG
- 2016–2026Annual zodiac seal published in 心に残る和の年賀状Impress Mook — ten consecutive years
- 2016Solo exhibition, Guam
- 2015篆刻源氏物語 featured in 新美術新聞美術年鑑社
- 2001Calligraphy performance, France and Switzerland