Amazing!
As always I love your customs Cheng!
Very impressive, cheng, and thanks, too, for the background information. But if different samurai used the same insignia, wasn't there a risk that an enemy would kill the wrong one? And did it ever happen that two samurai using the same insignia might be fighting on different sides?
My guess, Gordon,
is that very much the same thing happened with the Samurai and their insignias,
as what happened with the knights of Medieval Europe had to do with their Heraldry.
Knights in medieval Europe would be able to recognize, just from looking,
what heraldry belonged to who.
This was due to a combination of study, and of meeting people on the battle field.
Knights would have to know the heraldry of their lord, their vassals,
their fellow knights from the nearby provinces
(baronies, dukedoms, and counties, as well as minor noble's lands),
And any family friends or enemies.
You would begin learning at a very early age, most likely when you were a page.
Since even most of the nobility couldn't read and write
until the later parts of the medieval times,
Their squires and pages would have to learn the heraldry of different knights
in order to pass along letters or gifts from their lord, to the right person.
And this was done,
Even in the SCA (the medieval recreational group I attend)
people know the heraldry of all the knights in their own kingdom
and the heraldry of some of the larger household from all over the society.
At a large war last year I was able to listen while my Baron pointed out and named,
Not only the households, but some of the people in the households
and the heraldry of more prominent knights.
So my guess is that the samurai had to do much the same.
