Throughout its history, the people of Japan have attached great importance to distinctive signs. It is not known exactly what they were like during the existence of the ancient Japanese state. Information about them became more or less complete only when Japanese society finally took shape and began to be hierarchical.
Then the system of bureaucratic ranks (the basis was taken in China) divided the entire ruling class into 12 steps (or ranks). Each rank was supposed to wear a dress of a strictly defined color, which was a kind of symbol (or rather, a standard) of each bureaucratic class. And so on until the end of the 19th century. - the color of the "business" clothes of the Japanese indicated belonging to one or another rank.
Warriors (otherwise they were called samurai, or bushi) at first did not find a place in the formed system of ranks. Until the XII century. they were openly despised by the highest officials (for which, however, the latter paid dearly afterwards).
Standards of famous generals at the Battle of Osaka. Rice. A. Shepsa
In addition to personal insignia, the military clans that formed in the 9th-11th centuries had their own distinctive insignia, common for all members of the clan. First of all, it was a banner (khata-jirushi), which was a long, narrow panel, with its upper part fixed on a transverse crossbar. It was attached to the middle on a vertical shaft. It turned out something that looked like a banner, but 60-90 cm wide and 8-10 times longer. The lower end of the cloth, as a rule, was not fixed, which made it possible for the banner to flutter freely in the wind. Hata-jirushi Taira and Minamoto differed only in color - the former had red flags, the latter white.
Armor of a noble samurai with a monom on his chest.
At the top of the banners was the coat of arms of the clan (kamon or simply mon). Presumably, the Monas appeared around 1100 and were in circulation mainly among the court aristocracy. The origin of the first monks dates back to the times of tribal totems, and their images were then of a plant-animal nature. For example, the butterfly was the coat of arms of the Taira.
The uniformity of the icons changed after the Japanese hostilities against the Mongols, who twice tried to conquer the islands in the 13th century. Having received a certain lesson in fighting the Mongols, the Japanese began to give preference to battles on foot, using long spears and tate wooden shields as weapons.
The purpose of the tate was only to protect the shooters. Spearmen and swordsmen no longer used portable shields. So, on white shields then the family coat of arms was depicted, and one or more stripes running across. This combination of mona and stripes (a kind of identification mark of a military unit) was typical for other insignia in the Japanese army. They could be seen on shoulder and helmet flags, back banners.
Also, for distinctive signs, they used special canopies - jinmaku, which were used to enclose the commander's headquarters. They were originally used as curtains to isolate parts of the house from each other.
Since the XIV century. jinmaku began to be used in their everyday life by warriors. Jinmaku were made from strips of fabric, usually 5 of them. In height, such jinmaku reached 2-2, 5 m. The stripes were not completely sewn, leaving part of the canvas unstitched. The canvas allowed air to pass through, and if a strong wind rose, it did not inflate like a sail. And through them it was very convenient to observe what was happening outside. Most of the jinmaku were white, with a black family coat of arms in the center of the canvas in the middle lane. By the XVI century. jinmaku became colored, the presence of several colors on the cloth was not forbidden. On multi-colored jinmaku, the coats of arms were white, yellow, or they were not at all, which made it possible for those who saw the panel to try to guess the owner by color combination.
Almost at the same time, personal insignia appeared on the armor. In the days of Gempei, the samurai Minamoto and Taira sometimes tied ribbons of a certain color on their armor, which were specific for each clan. In the XIV century. such ribbons were modified in sode-jirushi - sleeve flags and kasa-jirushi - helmet flags.
Samurai with kasa-jirushi. Rice. A. Sheps.
The sleeve flag was a rectangle 3-4 sung per 1 shaku (9-12 by 30 cm), with a narrow end attached to the upper edge of the sode shoulder pad. Kasa-jirushi was about the same size, with the difference that the top of it was wrapped around a wooden plank. The pattern of the sleeve and helmet badges was repeated in the pattern on the tate shields, but sometimes, as an addition, it also contained some kind of inscription.
The period of the highest rise for all kinds of identification marks can be considered the "Period of the warring provinces" (Sengoku Jidai), which fell on the XIV-XVI centuries. In those days, Japan was fragmented into more than 200 independent principalities, rapidly emerging and just as quickly disappearing. Not a single year was complete without wars. Each prince, daimyo, wishing to increase and strengthen his army, recruited peasants, whom the army called ashigaru - "light-footed". Such a motley army needed iron discipline, and in addition, for the effective conduct of hostilities, a certain system of identification marks and signals was required. One of the significant inventions in the system of signs and signals was the invention of the back banner - sashimono. Similar signs have been noted in history only twice: these are the famous "wings" of the Polish hussars of the 15th – 16th centuries. and the back figures of animals used in the Aztec state as signs of belonging to the army. But, none of these signs could compete with the information content of sashimono.
Sashimono presumably arose after 1485. Until that time, only gonfalon-shaped khata-jirushi were used. And only when in the province of Yamashiro a conflict broke out between the two lines of the Hatakeyama family. Then it became necessary to come up with distinctive signs so that the opposing sides could understand where - their own, where - a stranger (the family coat of arms at that time was the same for all). Therefore, one of the sides hastily changes the appearance of the khata-jirushi: the upper bar is attached to the shaft at one end. This L-shaped banner is called nobori.
The standard dimensions of the panel were 1 shaku across (30 cm) and 3-4 shaku in length (90-120 cm). The bamboo served as a lightweight and highly durable frame. The warriors passed the lower end of the shaft through a ring that was on the armor or in the middle of the shoulder blades, or slightly higher, and then fixed it in a special leather pocket on the back.
In addition to the traditional rectangular sashimono, sometimes square-shaped banners came across. There were also very unique specimens - poles with a pommel in the form of a sun, a pumpkin carved from wood, a coat of arms, horns. They were used by the commanders of the ashigaru detachments in order to stand out from the general mass. Gradually, the fantasy of the samurai played out, and behind their backs it became possible to see well, just incredible things - a golden rice pestle, a turnip with leaves (!), A food bag, a prayer flag and a prayer plate, balls of black fur (or one black, two white and vice versa), a golden lantern, an anchor, a Buddhist monk's staff, or a golden fan! And even about peacock feathers and feather fans, you can not even talk - nature itself suggested that it is beautiful and weighs little.
There are several options for images on sashimono. First, there is an image at the top of the mona's cloth, as in the old khata-jirushi. The most popular colors are black on white. Red, blue, brown and green followed in descending order. It was very rare that sashimono was colored.
The coincidence of the color of the coat of arms with the color of the additional stripes was not fundamental.
Another type of images on banners is close to monks, but does not apply to them. Most often, these were initials. For example, a sashimono with a black circle in the upper part used Kuroda Nagamasa (kuro-da in Japanese means "black field"), the banner with the hieroglyph "and" ("well") was worn by samurai Ii Naomasa, an associate of Tokugawa Ieyasu Honda Tadakatsu had on the banners the first hieroglyph of his surname is "khon" ("book").
Such an easily recognizable image made it possible to determine the identity of the army, and in addition, the hieroglyphs helped to clarify the military unit. For example, the guards of the Hojo princes had a sashimono with a family coat of arms at the top of the cloth. One hieroglyph was placed under it, strictly individual for each platoon of soldiers (a platoon consisted of 20 soldiers). 48 platoons made up a company, of which there were seven. Sashimono colors were, of course, different in different companies - yellow, black, blue, red and white. It is interesting that when the army marched in a certain order, the hieroglyphs on the banners formed a poem.
Large banners required to designate the "headquarters" of the daimyo, as well as large military units, in the 16th century. had several types. The oldest, khata-jirushi, was also the rarest at the time. It is known that it was used by samurai families with ancient roots.
Another type of banner, the nobori, was more common. Despite the differences in shape, the designs on these types of banners were similar. Unlike monochromatic (sashimono), hata-jirushi and nobori were multicolored.
The next type of samurai banners - the standard, was called uma-jirushi - "horse banner". Such a strange name originates from ancient history. Then, apparently, some signs made from horse tails were used. It looks like there were such banners in the Middle Ages, but they did not become widespread.
In the XVI century. passion for originality has prompted the creation of a great variety of mind-jirushi of completely incredible forms. For example, Oda Nobunaga had the main standard (o-uma-jirushi) in the form of a huge red umbrella, and the small standard (ko-uma-jirushi) was a red hat on a long pole. Quite often, coins were depicted (black circles with a square hole in the center) and yanome (the so-called "snake's eye") - a ring with rather thick edges. For example, the Sanada family had a square shihan, on which six black coins were depicted. It is noteworthy that the "Six Coins" was exclusively the military coat of arms of Sanada. In a peaceful life, they used mon in the form of a stylized wild duck (kari).
Another of the most popular signs were fans, on which there were images of circles of various colors, as well as a swastika (Mongara), and images of all kinds of plants (plum flowers, cherry blossoms, oak leaves), as well as animals and birds.
Separate attention is paid to all kinds of sayings inscribed on the banners. For example, the famous Takeda Shingen had golden hieroglyphs on a dark blue nobori, forming a quote from the ancient Chinese work of Sun Tzu: "Fast as the wind, unhurried as a forest, merciless as fire, motionless as a mountain." In abbreviated form, this standard was called "Furinkazan", meaning "Wind, forest, fire, mountain".
Nobori Takeda Shingen. Rice. A. Shepsa
Tokugawa Ieyasu had a white khata-jirushi, inherited from his father, with the motto of the Buddhist sect "Pure Land" - "Getting distracted from the earthly vale, joyfully embark on the righteous path leading to the Pure Land."
And Ishida Mitsunari's hieroglyphs on a white nobori formed into a motto meaning “Great, great, ten thousandth success.” It is interesting that they were composed in the form of a crossword puzzle and at the same time were the owner's coat of arms, which was a unique case, because the hieroglyphs were used in the emblems very rarely and only in combination with any pattern.
The unique inscription was on Ban Naoyuki's banner. The inscription on his white nobori read "Handan Uemon," meaning "Right Palace Guard. Escort Squad." Then all the famous guards were divided into right and left. Apparently, either Naoyuki himself, or maybe one of his ancestors had the honor of serving in the palace guard and bearing a title that was named in a similar way.
This engraving by Utagawa Kuniyoshi clearly shows how the sashimono was attached to the back section of Japanese armor.
What was terrible in all this in the opinion of a European? Yes, the fact that any kind of identification system with the help of various signs within the clan was completely absent, and in addition there were a lot of them! For example, Koide Yoshichika, who fought in the Battle of Osaka for Tokugawa, had a white nobori with a black hieroglyph KO in a black circle, but the standard was a gold cross with fancy endings, but his samurai wore a sashimono in the form of a pole with five double gold flags! Tozavo Masamori, also a supporter of the Tokugawa, had sashimono messengers in the form of a red disc on a blue field and with a plume of black fur, but the sashimono of samurai and ashigaru were the same, but smaller and without a plume. Then he had a standard in the form of a flag with the same image and the same color, which was hung on the crossbar under the golden antlers. He had a large standard opposite - it looked like a pole with three golden umbrellas one above the other and a black plume of feathers, but he had a nobori in a black and white transverse strip.
Identification marks of the Japanese samurai. Old woodcut.
The Tsugaru clan, located in northern Japan, had an uma-jirushi in the form of a voluminous shakujo - a staff with a Buddhist monk's rattle, and such a size that three ashigaru had to carry it: one carried it on his back, and the other two stretched it out on cords so that he did not swing very much. The red sashimona of the samurai had a golden swastika, and the white nobori had two red swastikas. The small standard was white with a golden circle in the middle, but the shakujo's assistants were just two simple red flags!
But everyone seemed to be surpassed by a certain Inaba, who died in 1628, who had a sashimono ashigaru in the form of a triple (!) Flag with three white circles on a blue background, then the sashimono of messengers - a white hieroglyph on a blue background, then the sashimono of samurai - from five golden feathers on a pole, then a large standard - a golden bag for food, a small standard - a pest-pusher for rice, and, finally, nobori - a white circle on a blue field (one), that is, six different identification marks! And all this had to be remembered and all this should be understood in order to determine in time who is in front of you - friends or enemies!
Nobori from the movie "Seven Samurai" - six icons - six samurai, one icon - a peasant's son and below the hieroglyph for the village.
Obviously, both in weapons and in all kinds of identification means, the Japanese soldiers were distinguished by their originality. And some insignia of the samurai have no analogues in the world at all.
