Dressed in a black kimono and wearing a pair of eye-catching black, triple-framed spectacles, Shoryu Hatoba straightens his back as he sits on the tatami floor of his quaint studio in Ueno, central Tokyo, holding a pair of bamboo compasses fitted with a brush dipped in ink in place of a pencil.

Then he focuses his mind on his hand as he painstakingly describes the simplified outline of a plover. It's not just any bird drawing he's doing, though, but part of a family crest. Long an integral part of Japanese culture, these emblems were formerly in widespread use to mark people's clothes, possessions and even buildings.

But 56-year-old Hatoba is now one of a dying breed of monshō uwae shi (family-crest painters and designers). "I'm an endangered species," the Tokyo native concedes.