Hand Seal Guide

Hand seals are as important as Chakra in Naruto. All GenJutsu and NinJutsu need hand signs to be performed, but TaiJutsu doesn't because it simply needs no Chakra. The main function of a Hand sign is similar to that of magic words. Instead of speaking of words to activate a spell, Hand Seals are used to activate the technique, and release all the gathered Chakra. Hand Seals stand out for animals, specifically the animals found in the Oriental Zodiac signs. That's why there are 12 seals, one for each of the 12 years found in Oriental zodiacs.

This is because if the hand signs in a NinJutsu are not performed correctly, the Chakra will be released wrong and a different effect will occur, probably failing the Jutsu. As a result, Hand Seals need a lot of concentration, which is why techniques in Naruto cannot be interrupted, or the technique will definately fail. In the lines below, we have gathered images of all of the most frequent hand seals.

The hand seals in the Naruto series are based off of the Oriental Zodiac system. As you may have heard when someone talks about what year they are born in, they may say year of the Dragon, which means they would have been born in 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976 or 1988. Below we have organized the hand seals in order of when they appear in the Chinese zodiac, from one to twelve.

Nezumi (Rat)	O-ushi(Ox)
Tora (Tiger)	Usagi (Hare)
Ryu (Dragon)	Hebi (Serpent)
Uma (Horse)	O-hitsuji (Ram)
Saru (Monkey)	Tori (Bird)
Inu (Dog)	Ousu-buta (Boar)