Japanese Rings

A Japanese ring in this collection carries a picture or a text: a dragon coiled round the finger with its head on top, a koi in high relief, a samurai helmet, a guardian lion, a band engraved with the full text of a sutra, a spinner cut with a Sanskrit mantra that turns under your thumb. Thirty rings in sterling silver stamped 925 or in stainless steel, for men and women, sized by inner circumference in millimetres, and this page is about what the motifs mean, how the two metals differ, and how to find your size with a strip of paper.

Silver or steel

The sterling silver rings, stamped 925, are the sculpted and engraved ones: the cat wrapped round the finger with red stone eyes, the eight trigrams band, the cloud band with a gold winged lion, the four guardians in medallions, the serene face flanked by two smaller ones, the wolf head, the phoenix wrap, the sutra band, the hiragana band, the silver spinner. Most of the open bands adjust or spring to fit. The stainless steel rings are the heavy relief ones: the dragon coiled round the finger, the koi, the twin koi, the samurai helmet, the guardian lion, the wrathful deity crowned with skulls, the dragon claw, the dragon head, the two masks joined, the signets. Steel does not tarnish and takes a knock; silver warms with wear and wants a cloth now and then.

What the rings say

The dragon is power and water and luck, and it is on more of these than anything else. The koi is perseverance, the fish that swims up the waterfall and becomes a dragon. The tiger and the guardian lion are protection; the four guardians, dragon, tiger, phoenix and tortoise, are the four directions. The kabuto helmet and the menpo mask are the samurai. The sutra, the mantra and the Sanskrit seed syllable are Buddhist text worn as an object, and the spinner rings that turn under the thumb are the modern version of a prayer wheel. The hiragana band says what it says. Rings with a text inside, a sutra in tiny characters, are the ones people buy for someone.

Finding your ring size in millimetres

We size by inner circumference, which is the Japanese and European way and the one that does not depend on a chart. Wrap a strip of paper snugly round the finger, mark where it meets, and measure the strip in millimetres: that number is your size. 52 mm is about a US 6, 57 mm a US 8, 62 mm a US 10, 67 mm a US 12. Measure at the end of the day, when the finger is largest, and if you fall between two sizes take the larger for a wide band. The open silver bands and the spring-fit rings need no measuring.

Wearing and keeping them

The sculpted steel rings are worn one at a time, on the index or the middle finger, where the height of the relief sits best. The bands stack. Silver warms and darkens with wear and comes back with a polishing cloth; steel needs nothing. Take the sculpted rings off for the gym and the sea. Made to Japanese designs in Asia, sterling silver stamped 925 or stainless steel as stated on each page.

Japanese rings: the questions we are asked

How do I know my ring size?

Wrap a strip of paper round the finger, mark where it meets, measure it in millimetres. That is the inner circumference we list. 57 mm is roughly a US 8.

Is the silver real?

Yes, sterling silver stamped 925 on the rings that say so. The others are stainless steel and say so.

Are these men's or women's rings?

Both. The heavy steel relief rings are worn mostly by men; the bands and the cat by everyone. Sizes run from 52 to 73 mm.

What does the spinner ring do?

The outer band, engraved with a mantra, turns freely around the inner band under your thumb. It is a prayer wheel for the hand, and a thing to do with your fingers.