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Cultural symbols of Japan, China and Korea. What holds the group together is that each carries a rule or a history a Western reader will not guess: that a kamon has no registry and no exclusivity, so unrelated families share crests; that a mizuhiki knot means one thing if it can be retied and the opposite if it cannot; that a fu character is hung upside down because of a Mandarin pun; that dancheong began as timber preservation and became decoration; that an ensō cannot be corrected because the stroke is the point. Several members exist to record where a tradition's own account differs from the outside one.
A single motif in a circular field, drawn in one colour.
A comma-shaped swirl, often in a group of three.
A round red figure with a bearded face and no limbs.
A hollow fish-shaped windsock flown from a pole.
A decorative cord knot tied on a gift envelope.
A carved cylinder stamping a name in red ink.
A circle brushed in a single unbroken stroke.
The character for joy written twice, side by side.
The character for fortune, hung upside down.
The character for long life, often in a roundel.
A symmetrical decorative knot tied from a single cord.
A cloud-shaped head on a curved shaft.
Bands of patterned colour on wooden building members.
Five colours: blue, white, red, black and yellow.