Help identifying a mon.

[Guest Simon Rowson]

Hi gentlemen,

 

I wondered if anyone could shed some more light on the hanabishi kamon I use as my avatar (see left).

 

I am quite interested because there is a small silver version of this mon on the gunto kabuto-gane of my Kajiyama Yasutoku sword.

 

Hawley's lists the following 4 families (F) and 2 Daimyo (D):

 

Aonuma (F)

Goto (F)

Fukue in Hizen (D)

Matsumae (F)

Matsumae in Oshima (D)

Oi (F)

 

Interestingly, there is also the two kana name "Taya" scratched lightly onto the pierced, gunto tsuba in a position normally hidden by the seppa.

(see below)

 

"Taya" is both a Japanese family name and a rather old-fashioned woman's given name popular in the late 19th/early 20th Century (similar to names like "Mildred", "Mabel" or "Enid" in the West).

 

However, I'd probably opt for it being the officer's family name in this case rather than a woman's as the latter option would mean he'd either scratched on the name of his wife or mother for luck (highly unlikely) or had given his sword a name of it's own (even more unlikely......can you imagine him crying "Now barbarian scum, feel the keen edge of Mildred!")

 

Finally, my sword also has a brown/orange field officers tassel attached so all I have to do now is find a Major or Colonel Taya related to one of the above samurai families and I'll have found the original owner....wow, simple!

(Now where's that haystack? I need to find another needle.)

 

Seriously guys, I look forward to any additional information you can give me on this kamon.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Simon

[Stephen]

two scans from the mon book

[Guest Simon Rowson]

Many thanks Stephen!

 

Interestingly, one of the mon on your first scan (left column, third one down) is my wife's family mon.

 

All the best,

 

Simon

[Henry Wilson]

Hi Simon

 

Just a thought but have you tried the Showa Museum in Kudanshita in relation to the Mon and TAYA inscription?

 

It has a library of sorts that might be a start in helping you track down families during the showa period . It is a a brief walk from Yasukuni shrine on the Tozai line.

 

http://www.willamette.edu/~rloftus/showakan.htm