seal-style characters
篆 centers on a specific historical calligraphic style: the seal script used for official seals and formal inscriptions. The meaning is narrow and technical, referring to this particular ancient character form.
篆 combines 竹 (bamboo) with 彖, a component associated with carving or engraving. Together they suggest characters carved into bamboo slips, which is consistent with the seal-script style used in ancient official documents.
The top 竹 is bamboo, and the bottom 彖 looks like a carved pattern. Picture ancient scribes carving seal-script characters into bamboo strips: 篆 is the seal-style writing they produced.
For テン, imagine a ten-stamp seal: ten -> テン, and each stamp uses the seal-script style 篆.
—
seal engraving
seal-engraving style (of writing Chinese characters); seal script
large seal script (dating from China's Spring and Autumn period onward)
small seal script (arising during China's Warring States period)
seal-engraving style (of writing Chinese characters); seal script
seal engraver
seal script character
seal script character
seal style and ancient square style