Hi everyone,
Tom, who’s been training and sweating it out with us for the past three years at the Nakamura Branch of the Tosa-jikiden eishinryu Iaido school, is heading back to the UK this summer. So, to mark the occasion, we made a special branch T-shirt as a parting gift.
The illustration and design were done by one of our members, FUSHIMI Madoka． She’s a designer who works under the name “Fushimi Design”, and as soon as we gave her a photo of Tom, she quickly turned it into a cool silhouette.
The calligraphy was written by our branch leader, Master TANIZAKI Masahide . I mentioned at a get-together that we were thinking of giving Tom a T-shirt, and just a few days later, he brought us the handwritten branch name. Huge thanks to him!
We brought all of that together and got the T-shirt printed at our shop.
On the shoulder it says “刀武” (Tom).
That’s the kanji name we came up with for Tom Parker. (His full name is actually Tom Christoph Parker, but he said just “Tom Parker” is fine because it’s shorter.)
His new samurai-style name is: Hagawa Tom (巴川刀武).
“Parker” became 巴川 (Hagawa) — “巴” can be read as “Pa” (like how Paris is written as 巴里 in kanji), and “川” means river, which fits nicely with the “ker” sound. “Hagawa” is even a real Japanese surname — finding names like that is a bit of a fun skill for people who make name stamps!
And “Tom” became 刀武 (Tom) — using the kanji for “sword” and “warrior”. Pretty cool, right? It gives him a proper samurai vibe. If he ever decides to become a Japanese citizen, “Hagawa Tom” would definitely work.
So, with Madoka’s artwork and Master Tanizaki’s calligraphy, we printed the T-shirt at our shop and gave it to Tom at his farewell party just before he left. He was genuinely chuffed, which made it all worth it.
Tom, hope you come back to Japan someday!
By the way, we also make custom T-shirts at our shop, so if you’re interested, just give us a shout.
Cheers for now!