What is this kamon (family crest)

[elzosmid]

Hello,
My brother-in-law visited the Metropolitan Museum in NY with the exhibition 'Armoured Horses' and made a picture of the outfit of a japanese horseman. I was puzzled by the family crest on the cape and am hoping that somebody can tell me something about it.
The inside is the three-parts-curl associated with Okinawa. But the outside is an diamond shape or abstract lotus.
Any information is very welcome. Please excuse my english, I'm Dutch.
http://www.elzosmid.nl/kamon-met.jpg

[Mandylion]

Your question is complicated by several factors -

First, what period this kamon was used. If it is an early example of kamon, it is a fairly easy problem - kamon use was mainly restricted to high-ranking samurai and use as an identification marker on the battlefield. However, starting with the sengoku-era (1467-1600) kamon use literally explodes. So much so that edicts are issued restricting their use. Samurai had been adopting and modifying kamon for their own use regardless of lord-vassal connections. Popular kamon were being coopted by everyone and anyone. The in the Tokugawa era, some commoners began to use kamon, and the marks even more fluid in their use and design. People could design new kamon based off older ones they liked. Families could use more than one kamon and with few exceptions, change/adopt a new one at will.

Not only do you have an increase in numbers, but also geographic distribution. While mixing in Edo (Tokyo) samurai might spot an attractive kamon from an area hundreds of miles away with no connection to his own home, family, or lord, yet he could freely adopt that kamon or a variation of it. Now we have a kamon used not only in Okinawa, for example, but also in say, Akita where it could spawn a whole different branch of variations on the same theme.

Secondly, the "en" kamon and its variations are very popular. They turn up on Shinto shrines, in sumo, on many family crests, and sometimes simply as decoration. Within any given region where the crest was used, there could be thousands of individuals using or modifying this or any given kamon, complicating our task beyond measure.

The question of kamon identification then becomes seeking out entire families of kamon and attempting to trace when a design appeared, where, on what/whom etc. Kamon do not function like European heraldry due to all the factors outlined above. Thus, a key component of fixing a name to any kamon design is geography and time. Does anyone on your side know where this bit of armor comes from in Japan and when it was used? Without it, even matching it to an identical kamon used at some point by a lord is no proof of authenticity.

Even given all of that, depending on the period, the best we can probably hope for is the name of a lord and the region of Japan it comes from, which may or may not be the family that owned the item...

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

Hello,
My brother-in-law visited the Metropolitan Museum in NY with the exhibition 'Armoured Horses' and made a picture of the outfit of a japanese horseman. I was puzzled by the family crest on the cape and am hoping that somebody can tell me something about it.
The inside is the three-parts-curl associated with Okinawa. But the outside is an diamond shape or abstract lotus.
Any information is very welcome. Please excuse my english, I'm Dutch.
http://www.elzosmid.nl/kamon-met.jpg

This is "三つ巴菱 (MITUDOMOEBISHI)":wave:

[elzosmid]

This is "三つ巴菱 (MITUDOMOEBISHI)":wave:

Please tell me more. I cant find anything called MITUDOMOEBISHI on the internet.

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

I examined it on Internet about a family coat of arms of "三つ巴菱(MITUDOMOEBISHI)", but there was not the information about a family.
I examined it in a municipal library, but was not found.
http://www.harimaya.com/kamon/column/mon/kobayaka.jpg
巴(tomoe)A family coat of arms
巴 is the thing which modelled water.
It is the crest of a hachiman shrine.
A Hachiman Shinto shrine is God of a fight.
Many samurais believed in Hachiman and used this crest for a family coat of arms
(Hachiman Shinto shrine)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachiman
There are many samurais using this crest in North Kanto
A representative family
"宇都宮(Utsunomiya)"
It is divided into 八田・笠間・塩谷・茂木・武茂(Hatta/Kasama/Shioya/Motegi/takeshige) etc. from the Utsunomiya family.
There are many houses which name a descendant of 藤原秀郷(Fujiwara no hidehisa) it in a powerful family of Kanto.
A genealogy
http://page.freett.com/keizusoko/keizu/fujiwara/fujiwara_hoku/fujiwara_hoku4.html
In addition, the family which used 巴紋
長尾・曾我・土肥・沼田・小早川(Nagao / Soga / Doi / Numata / Kobayakawa).
It is a descendant of 桓武平氏(Kanmuheishi) both
(Taira clan)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taira_clan

http://infoseek.amikai.com/amiweb/browser.jsp?langpair=2%2C1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harimaya.com%2Fkamon%2Fcolumn %2Ftomoe.html&translate=WEB%E3%83%9A%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8%E7%BF%BB% E8%A8%B3&display=2&lang=JA&toolbar=yes&c_id=infoseek
Distribution of a Sengoku-Daimyou family coat of arms
http://www2.harimaya.com/sengoku/map/bk_n01.html

http://www.harimaya.com/kamon/column/mon/hisi01.jpg

菱　紋(Hishi family coat of arms)
http://infoseek.amikai.com/amiweb/browser.jsp?langpair=2%2C1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harimaya.com%2Fkamon%2Fcolumn %2Fhisi.html&translate=WEB%E3%83%9A%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8%E7%BF%BB% E8%A8%B3&display=2&lang=JA&toolbar=yes&c_id=infoseek
It is an extremely old pattern.
Basic form is a lozenge called a lozenge rice cake, but much transformation does dispatch from now on, and it is a family coat of arms which had most variations in a family coat of arms.
A representative family is 武田(Takeda) of 清和源氏義光流(Kiyokazu Genji Yoshimitsu style

(Takeda)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeda_family

A list of family coats of arms of a vassal of Tokugawa
http://www.harimaya.com/o_kamon1/hatamoto/hm_a.html

[tetsunihon]

Hey I resent found and bought a book wit 1000 plus family crest. It has that symbol n it 2. Among other symbols u may have seen on artifacts, movies, comics, and actual kamono's worn by family members.

I was excited 2 get it cuz ima use one of the symbols as a icon that appears n my anime characters eye win he powers up. Also I am useing the synbols 2 distinguish the familys n my characters profile.....

I'm trying 2 make my custom anime unique yet carry authentic japanese history on the side..... Like mixing fact wit fiction.

[Oyakata]

Nagashima-san,
Thanks for the great information and several really handy links.

A list of family coats of arms of a vassal of Tokugawa
http://www.harimaya.com/o_kamon1/hatamoto/hm_a.html
This "Kamon World" is one of my favorite online resources for kamon, as well!
Thanks again.
Oyakata
www.odanobuanga.com/kamon