japanese family mons site

[loiner1965]

is they an online site where you can view Japanese family mons please...a friend tried in vain with no luck

[Splidge]

Hi loiner1965

Try this link.

http://www.samurai-archives.com/crest1.html

 

Kind regards

 

Frank

[loiner1965]

cheers mate many thanks

[Bugyotsuji]

There are some sites, like Frank's useful one above, but none of them are exhaustive and each one gives only part of the picture. There are hundreds of exceptions which don't seem to appear anywhere on the internet, but if you want detail you really need to source a good Mon book, in my experience. Also remember that family Mon changed over time, so you would need to be clear as to what time in history that you are interested in, as each family's Mon grew in number through intermarriage, granting of Mon usage etc.

[loiner1965]

my friend suggested that this silver ornament might be a family mons and suggested saito but i am too inexperienced to agree

[IanB]

Steve, I so agree with Piers, it is a minefield that is barely mapped. One relatively useful book is 'Kamon no Jiten' (ISBN 4-87190-714-7) which at least ascribes kamon to names. Another recent publication is 'Kamon of famous people' (ISBN 4-404-03348-6). This lists the kamon used by a variety of big names, both historic and more recent. It illustrates hundreds of variations on each design but does not identify the users of these variations. There are older books but they are also very limited. Sadly I do not think the situation will ever improve. Because there were no officials, like the heralds of Europe, to regulate the system, much of the historic information has had to be gleaned from battle screens. The more recent attributions has come from surviving families. Incredibly, the kamon used by some of the commanders at Seki ga Hara are now unknown yet they were big players in their day.

Ian Bottomley