Style combination · Pairs well

Kamon × Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Kabuki actors had their own mon, and actor prints show them on the costume, as on the sleeve of Ichikawa Yaozō III in a print of 1796; pair a flat crest with ukiyo-e figures to identify characters without captions.

From the research on Kamon (Japanese Family Crests)

Mix them and make something Kamon Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Four cream-colored cranes with spread wings form a circular emblem around an ochre disk on a textured black background. Large cream calligraphy runs vertically at the upper right, and a narrow cream border surrounds the poster. — AI-generated by Stylogeny from the recipe below, and checked against it: the type from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints, the form from Kamon, the composition from Kamon. Not a real or historical work.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Kamon (Japanese Family Crests) Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Type from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints: Brush & pen calligraphy
Rotated & vertical setting
Colour from Kamon: Monochrome
Flat fields
Form from Kamon: Pictogram
Emblems & badges
Composition from Kamon: Radial & concentric
Central symmetry

Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints avoids central symmetry: this is where the two pull against each other.
Surface from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints: Carved line
Paper & letterpress bite

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Fiesta

Shippori Mincho, standing in for Brush-written kana and kanji titles (gyōsho and sōsho hands)

Text · Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Mass-produced Edo-period woodblock prints of actors, courtesans, legends and landscapes, designed by an artist, cut and printed by specialist craftsmen and sold cheaply by commercial publishers. Flat colour blocks inside a carved keyline, bold cropping, high or oblique viewpoints and diagonal compositions, with titles in small cartouches, later handed Europe a new model for the poster.

Shippori Mincho; Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints used Brush-written kana and kanji titles and Kantei-ryū kabuki lettering

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Kamon, with a counter-accent from Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Kamon (Japanese Family Crests) Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

#f3efe6 ground · 36%
#121212 ink · 14%
#b38f3d accent · 18%
#c64a2d accent · 14%
#8c2d25 accent · 10%
#1d2b47 accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #f3efe6;
  --ink: #121212;
  --accent-1: #b38f3d;
  --accent-2: #c64a2d;
  --accent-3: #8c2d25;
  --accent-4: #1d2b47;
  --font-display: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
  --font-text: "Shippori Mincho", serif;
}

Use it with care

Kamon (Japanese Family Crests): Mon are inherited marks of particular families, shrines, temples and institutions. Only the imperial chrysanthemum is named in Japanese law: the Trademark Act (art. 4(1)(i)) bars registering it or anything like it. The government's paulownia, though the official emblem of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, was never given the same legal restrictions, while famous crests registered as trademarks, such as Mitsubishi's three diamonds, are protected as marks. Do not use the chrysanthemum, the government paulownia, or any identifiable family's, shrine's or temple's crest as decoration or as a brand. Imperial emblems can also recall Japan's wartime empire for audiences in Korea and China. The manji (卍), a standard crest (the Hachisuka clan; the temple crest of Sensō-ji), is read in the West as the Nazi swastika: avoid it outside a Japanese context that explains it. Draw new crests by the tradition's rules instead of borrowing real ones, and commission or credit working monsho uwaeshi, who still draw and paint crests by hand.

The two styles

A cream circular floral emblem sits on a black background, with six pointed leaves and six round-tipped stems arranged around a central disc. Below it, widely spaced serif capitals spell “HARMONY.”

c. 1100–present · East Asia Kamon (Japanese Family Crests) Japan's family crests: small one-colour emblems that reduce a plant, animal, tool or pattern to a flat silhouette, mirrored or repeated around a centre, often ringed and drawn with compass and brush. Begun on Heian court carriages and spread to samurai and all of society, mon are usually inherited, granted or freely chosen rather than designed, varied in small codified ways for branch families, and placed in fixed positions on formal kimono, shop curtains, lacquer and banners. Covers the formal crest (jōmon), not the decorative coloured kaga-mon or pictorial date-mon and share-mon.

An enormous hawk with raised wings and extended talons swoops over a rough sea with a small sailboat and rocky islands. Pine-covered cliffs and a Japanese-style building frame the right side, with a mountain, red sun and vertical Japanese lettering in the background.

1670–1900 · East Asia Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints Mass-produced Edo-period woodblock prints of actors, courtesans, legends and landscapes, designed by an artist, cut and printed by specialist craftsmen and sold cheaply by commercial publishers. Flat colour blocks inside a carved keyline, bold cropping, high or oblique viewpoints and diagonal compositions, with titles in small cartouches, later handed Europe a new model for the poster.

More combinations

With Kamon

All 19 combinations with Kamon

With Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

All 15 combinations with Ukiyo-e Woodblock Prints

Every style combination