Last modified: 2004-12-11 by phil nelson
Keywords: daimyo | japan | imagawa yoshimoto |
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Born: 1519
Died: 1660
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The image centered in the flag is a most popular mon (Japanese family crest) called kiri (Paulownia).
The paulownia bears a heavy load of legendary and historic
significance. According to Chinese legend, the mythical phoenix,
bird of immortality, alights only in the branches of the paulownia
tree when it comes to earth and eats only the seed of the bamboo.
Intricate depictions of the phoenix-paulownia-bamboo were worked
into Chinese textiles on the basis of this legend. As an explicitly
imperial crest, the paulownia ranks only slightly behind the
chrysanthemum and both are usually taken as the dual emblems of the
Japanese throne. This association developed gradually and was
formalized only in the early 13th century when the emperor Godaigo
conferred both the chrysanthemum and paulownia crests upon Ashikaga
Takauji founder of the Ashikaga line of shoguns, who held nominal
military control over Japan for the next century and a half. While
maintaining their original family crest of two parallel lines, the
Ashikaga shoguns, beginning with Takauji himself proceeded to use
the paulownia as a mark of favor of their own. A number of powerful
Daimyo who gave their support to the Ashikaga were rewarded with
the right to wear the prestigious paulownia and from time to time
on the paulownia crests conveyed a heady aura of both legitimacy
and power. In the 16th century the brilliant and maverick Toyotomi
Hideyoshi claimed his control over the land and was granted use of
paulownia by the throne itself. Hideyoshi used this as his own
family crest. By the late feudal period, so many families had come
to use the paulownia through conferral, inheritance, or subterfuge
that a weary phoenix would have been able to alight on neary
one-fifth of the warrior population of Japan. The paulownia was
drawn in the center of speech stand when PM S. Koizumi made his
speech at U.N. in October 2004
Nozomi Kariyasu, 2 October 2004