The Government Seal of Japan, one of the country's

national seals National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

, is the emblem ''( mon)'' of

paulownia ''Paulownia'' ( ) is a genus of seven to 17 species of hardwood tree (depending on taxonomic authority) in the family Paulowniaceae, the order Lamiales. They are present in much of China, south to northern Laos and Vietnam and are long cultivat ...

used by the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

, the Cabinet and the

Government of Japan The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary stat ...

on official documents. It is generally known as the , which has been used by those in power and is the official emblem of the Japanese government today. It resembles a stylized

with 5-7-5 flowers. It is one of various paulownia ''mon'', collectively known as the or the .

History

Before the Chrysanthemum Seal was used extensively, the Paulownia Seal originally was the private symbol of the

Japanese Imperial Family The , also referred to as the Imperial Family or the House of Yamato, comprises those members of the extended family of the reigning Emperor of Japan who undertake official and public duties. Under the present Constitution of Japan, the Emperor i ...

, from as early as the sixteenth century. The

Toyotomi clan The was a Japanese clan that ruled over the Japanese before the Edo period. Unity and conflict The most influential figure within the Toyotomi was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the three "unifiers of Japan". Oda Nobunaga was another primary ...

, led by

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

, later adopted the Paulownia Seal for use as the crest of his clan. After the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, the seal was eventually adopted as the emblem of the Japanese government. It is now mainly used by the Japanese government, as a contrast to the Chrysanthemum Seal which represents the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

as the symbol of the

sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the perso ...

of the State, and members of the

Imperial Family A royal family is the immediate family of King, kings/Queen regnant, queens, Emir, emirs/emiras, Sultan, sultans/Sultana (title), sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the ...

Designs

More than 140 designs exist. The most common one is the , consisting of three leaves and an

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

of 3–5–3 flowers. It is found in the emblems of the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

and the Imperial Guard Headquarters. The 5-7 Paulownia and 5-3 Paulownia are also called "Go-shichi Giri" and "Go-san Giri" without the particle "no" respectively, due to

consonant mutation Consonant mutation is change in a consonant in a word according to its morphological or syntactic environment. Mutation occurs in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of all ...

("Kiri" → "Giri") known as

rendaku is a phenomenon in Japanese morphophonology that governs the voicing of the initial consonant of a non-initial portion of a compound or prefixed word. In modern Japanese, ''rendaku'' is common but at times unpredictable, with certain words un ...

in the

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

. The Paulownia Seals contain the leaves and flowers of ''

Paulownia tomentosa ''Paulownia tomentosa'', common names princess tree, empress tree, or foxglove-tree, is a deciduous hardwood tree in the family Paulowniaceae, native to central and western China. It is an extremely fast-growing tree with seeds that disperse rea ...

'' ("princess tree"), which is called "kiri" (桐) or "shirogiri (白桐)" in Japanese.

References

External links

Kamon Database by KamonDB: Kirimon

Japan Crest free material hakkodaiodo
��Japan ''Kamon'' Image material National symbols of Japan Japan Japanese coats of arms Japanese heraldry {{Japan-gov-stub

History

Designs

See also

References

External links