Inoue clan kamon in gold texture on black pin

This is the kamon of the Inoue samurai clan. This Japanese clan came to prominence during kamakura and edo period. The kamon consists of feathers groups in a circle. I used a faux gold texture (this is a photo image!) on a black background. The mon is similar to the coat of arms from European heraldic tradition. Although, there is a big difference, the mon stays clean and minimalist in design. European crests tend to get very complicated by combining other family crests over the generations. Mon and Kamon are usually designed using a roundel containing a abstracted, stylized image of an object. This object can be a plant, an animal, a tool, or anything you fancy. This will lead to a large amount of categories containing many variations of a particular object. Although we end up with thousands of mon, due to its minimalist and even modern design, mon and kamon are never boring. They look absolutely beautiful on any piece of merchandise.