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Need help finding my family crest (mon)

gokigen

I love okonomiyaki
21 Jul 2004
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There are more knowledgable people on this board and I'm sure someone could please help me to find my family crest.

These are the avenues I have tried:
1) I spoke with my parents but they said they lost everything in a fire in the war and they refuse to revisit what is left
2) I have visitied various websites but none display on last name
3) I have visited the LA Japanese Cultural heritage museum to receive help from the keeper of those records to no avail
4) looked over countless in the public libraries to no avail

The sad thing is I cannot spell out my last name in Kanji if my life depended on it, but these are the things I know:
My mother is from Yamaguchi-ken and my father is from Osaka they married changing her surname to his. My father's family comes from a line of fishermen and my mother's side is samurai. We do have the armour displayed in my grandma's house but I have not seen it since I was a kid- probably won't be able to see it without going to Japan. I know have an unusual last name with a very unusual spelling but where do I start?

My grandfather's name on my mom's side is koshikawa and my grandmother's maiden name is Kaneyoshi. I know its a long shot but I thought I would try.

All I know is that the "kawa" in Koshikawa is not spelled like river and the "kane" in Kaneyoshi is spelled like gold/kin.

Thanks
 
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There is a book called "Japanese design motifs" which contains over 4,000 crests (you can probably still buy it from Amazon or someplace). I have a copy, but the names are in Japanese characters. If you wish, and can find someone to help you figure out the possible Kanji, then I will search the book. Good luck
 
There are a few good sites on the web - I'll see if I have time to go digging today. However, finding your kamon can be a very tricky business. The good news is that all kamon, except for the imperial family's, are up for adoption by any one who wants them. For example, I adopted my former host family's when I got married (also as a sort of tribute to their role in both our lives). Found out later it is a kamon many people take if they don't know if they have a true family kamon.
 

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If you could get us the exact kanji and region, as well as family dates and history I could try and narrow things down for you. Thing is, a lot of people didn't have kamon way back when but rather adopted the kamon of their over-lord or direct superior (if they were a samurai) or even later in the Meiji era when people were allowed to live with more libral naming regulations (basically an open market).

What I am getting at is that your family kamon (crest) is most likely a borrowed crest, and as such attempts to find the Koshikawa kamon will either produce many variations (Koshikawa is not that rare a name - run a google search and you shall see) or none at all. So, if you could give me something like "great, great grandfather was a samurai in the service of the lord of X province" then maybe I could get you somthing that might be considered reliable.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but a good placeto start, if you or someone you know wants to read all this, is 家紋World

Good luck.
 
Meu sobrenome é Setoguti, meu pais são da cidade de Okuti - shi , fica no estado e Kagoshhima ken
estou procurando o kamon da minha familia
 
Meu sobrenome é Setoguti, meu pais são da cidade de Okuti - shi , fica no estado e Kagoshhima ken
estou procurando o kamon da minha familia

Please start your own thread in English. Thank you.
 
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