Customer comments on this selection.
 Excellent motifs
Im in graphic design and using this book has helped me so much! Hundreds of pages bombarded with close to 3x3 thumbnails-so much info that it will probably take a very long time to actually notice each design. Some people dont like this book because all designs are set into a limited palette of insignias. The point is not to look at what the overall shape of the thumbnail is but at the specific contours, combinations. There's a variety from organic to geometric shapes. Some designs look modern, others ancient, others are used today i.e. radiation symbol. All of these designs come from an Asian background which is so design and logo-oriented that it most definitely helps you find that "swoosh" or certain attitude you're looking for. Overall, Dover books have great graphics!
 A graphic source book
It hadn't occurred to me that this could be a research source for geneaology, but i'm glad to see that it's useful for those searching for ancestral emblems. I appreciate this book as a source for small, clip art versions of Japanese graphic design.
As any user of clip art knows, it only takes one application from a source to pay for the cost of the book and this one has more than paid its way.
great for artists and geneology detectives
This book is simply the best. I found my maternal grandfather's mon and my paternal grandmother's crest in this book. It is quite comprehensive. Reading japanese kanji is a plus as you can then read descriptions next to appropriate mon. Graphic artists studying oriental design will find more than 4,000 designs that have existed for hundreds of years. There is inspiration aplenty for all artists.
Great Book
I bought the book for my son and he loved everything about it. The illustrations are teriffic.
Comprehensive and logically organized
Supposedly, there are about 2,000 Japanese family crests, with origins that reach back more than a millenium. And while I can't say whether this book contains all two thousand, it's nevertheless pretty comprehensive. They're presented in columns of black images--each image about 2" in diameter--and grouped by theme (e.g., crests depicting one cherry blossom, then crests based on 2 blossoms, then crests based on 3 blossoms, etc.).
Like other Dover art books, this one is primarily for artists and designers, rather than for students of history/culture. (I used these images for stencilling, during an Anglo-Japanese makeover of our 1870s-era house--and discovered that "chinoiserie" abounds, but "japanesque" is rare. This book became part of an invaluable, and small, set of resources.)
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