Should you ever find yourself in feudal Japan, you’re gonna need, NEED!, to know what symbols are what. And I’m not talking about signs for the bathroom and the sword hut, I mean crests. Badges that express heraldry in Japan since 900 A.D., peaking in production and diversity in the feudal age. Lots of badges made right around there in time. In this post there are over a hundred unique crests, each of them marked and categorized, each of them reproduced faithfully from the greatest book in the world, Ernst Lehner’s long out of print hard and soft cover symbologists dream book “Symbols, Signs, & Signets.”

Some of y’all might remember earlier this month when we took a look at a different part of this same book for some Hobo Symbologies. Really excellent stuff. The symbols you’re about to take a look at are from a completely different part of the universe – Japan.

Worn on garments on the back of the neck, the shoulders, and on each breast. Worn on everything, fighting uniforms, skateboard gear, birthday suits, figure skating costumes, everything except wedding robes, mourning robes, and hara-kiri garments.

Below you’ll find symbols from basically every wild category you’d ever want to symbolize about: flowers, fruits, vegetables, canopies, umbrellas, fans, ships, sails, weapons, helmets, butterflies, insects, birds, fish, mammals, scrolls, and dragons. There’s also a few illustrations of some folks from that era by artist Totoya Hokkei. – and on that note, if anyone has any Hokkei prints just lying around their house, they can feel free to send em on over!

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies museum category.