Tutaedamaru Coffee Mug

In the mid-Edo period, there was a ban on using the crest of the Tokugawa family, the Aoi crest. As a result, people from various backgrounds, including entertainers and townspeople, freely chose and used crests that they found appealing, regardless of their family lineage. The stiff and formal crests used by the samurai class were not favored; instead, elegant and fashionable crests were preferred. Among these, the Tsuta (Ivy) and Hanabishi (Flower Diamond) crests were particularly popular patterns, as noted by Kosaku Ito in "Monsho" (Crest). Masaki Kondo, in "Onna Mon" (Women's Crests), also wrote that when he analyzed the crests that appeared on the survey responses, the most frequently occurring motifs were Kiri (Paulownia), Tsuta (Ivy), and Cho (Butterfly), with Kiri and Tsuta making up nearly half of the total.