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Nobu Jewelry


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What is Kamon ?

Kamon was born in the Japanese tradition and cultural climate and is the symbol of a family or a group. In addition, a symbol similar to the family crest is an emblem of national as well as local government bodies including prefecture, city, town and so forth, uniquely designed in consideration of the tradition and cultural background specific to the respective region. Also, religious facilities like shrines, Buddhist temples, various enterprises, educational organizations like universities, colleges, high schools etc. have got their own emblems designed to represent their own tradition and background, and they are regarded as important properties of their own. 
 
According to an authority, in Japan, there are as many as 30,000 different family crests. Most of them are images of plants followed by images of animals. This could explain that the traditional Japanese way of life had been closely associated with the natural surroundings.
It appears that by drawing various images of nature that were seen or used in people's everyday life for usage as decorative articles for clothes, furniture etc. and with the repeated use of such images, gradually it became the family symbol or crest. This is probably how the Japanese family crest was born.   After the 2nd World War, along with a fast change of the "nuclear family" system, which is the decentralization of family members according to the new democrat social system enforced after the war, people's strong emotional attachment to "family" had been lost and eventually, recognition of Kamon as family symbol has also lost much ground.
 
A typical Japanese family would have two family crests, the father’s & mother’s side. If you are the daughter of your family, you receive the crest from your mother’s side (Okasan - mother or Obachan - grandmother).
If you are the son of your family, you receive the crest from your father’s side (Otosan - father or Ojiichan - grandfather).
The crests do not necessarily go by last names, even you have same sir name, It does not mean that you have same family crest, it depends upon where your family originated, related family ,occupation, social class etc.