Japanese people still give enough importance to the family system and so the family symbols also haven’t lost their significance until today. This concept of family symbols known as ‘Ka-mon’ has been influencing them for the the last eight centuries. The word ‘Ka’ signifies family with a genealogical tree of its own and ‘mon’ means emblem.
The Europeans also had the custom of adopting family symbols at that time, which was named ‘Coat of Arms’ . This similitude has been a stimulant for a number of comparative studies between these two symbols.
No doubt, the Japanese family symbol boasts diverse and unique characteristics which are impossible to decipher by giving them generalized explanations.
Mon, the Japanese family symbols are usually found in a round-shaped form, surrounding any figures like plants, animals, artificial materials and other natural or extraterrestrial figures. Really there are no specified rules concerning the designing of these symbols.
Kanji symbols are commonly found in Japanese family symbols. Religious symbols and geometrical patterns also can be seen. The whole lot of these things are put down in a distracted manner.
Although there are no predefined rules for the construction of mon symbols, their names are decided by the figures they consist of. Unlike the European symbols, the name is only a description of the symbol and does not reveal the real representation of it. The figures on these symbols become fashion throughout the ages as they get the label of custom and mythology.
Generally we find that a mon is black and white in colour. In fact however the colour does not constitute the design and hence there is no such restriction on the use of colour. Although modern usage is unusual you will still find many modern Japanese families to have a mon. It is a fact that many Japanese people may be unable to identify their own family’s mon in today’s times.
When a family is in need of identifying their mon, the temple records that keep the registries of the ancestral places of people can be used. There are so many other ways to identify the mon of every family when they are required.
Although it has turned an old convention, some people still decorate their roofs and interior decorations with the family symbols. Packed food products coming from Japan are marked with these mon symbols sometimes. Also mon can be obtained from the craft shops all over the world.
Japanese Kanji symbols share some similarities with Chinese symbols . anyone wanting to read further on the subject of Japanese tattoo art click on the hyperlinks herein.