In ancient Mesopotamia in 6000 B.C., people engraved their own "mark" on stones and shells and wore them as an amulet. At that time, it was believed that the mark contained divine power.

In 3000 B.C., after 2500 years had passed, a highly artistic cylindrical seal was created. It was created for sealing property, like the wax seal on a letter. Eventually, the cylindrical seal lasted for 3,000 years, and not only adult men but also women and slaves wore the seals as necklaces and bracelets by threading a cord through them.

When the time came around 550 B.C., the small cylindrical seals were enlarged and glamorized with glourious stones, gold, and silver. The design of the seals also changed from the myths, hunting, and fighting that depicted the people’s lifestyle to those that glorified the power of kings.

In 330 B.C., when Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, established a great empire connecting Greece, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, and India into one, the culture of the cylindrical seal finally came to an end.

However, seals continued to spread from Mesopotamia to Egypt, Rome, and the Indus, each developing its own seal culture in its land.

During the Roman Empire, both rich and poor wore ring-shaped seals.

Gold ring

Silver ring

Iron ring

The year 2022 A.D., 8000 years after the birth of the seal. In the Land of the Rising Sun, far to the east of ancient Mesopotamia, the Galasu-ya sect began a play that would become their mark-making activity on the banks of the Sumida River. 

According to excavated digital remains, at the turn of the long-lasting seal culture in that country, the personal crest named “Shimon” a fusion of the stamp and family crest cultures, was born.

At a time when a variety of individual lifestyles were gradually accepted, everyone invented and wore his or her own mark, regardless of whether they were single, married, gender, disability, race, or nationality.

This is a story that dates back about 1000 years from now.

※There are many theories about the origin of the stamp.