GoKawiilIn modern life, we are surrounded by symbols that guide our everyday movements. When I’m driving, the red octagonal sign on the street reminds me to stop even before I read the word on the sign. And similarly, other street signs signal their meaning through their shape and their color far more than the exact lettering on them.
And still, in my life here in the United States, words are still needed to convey meaning. A perfect example is the new driver sticker that I often see on the backs of cars around here. Interestingly, I’ve noticed that Japan has many examples of symbols that convey meaning entirely on their own. There are no associated words, and they often convey mutual understanding, where the person displaying a mark and passersby both know what it means. Japan has a very long history of graphic symbols.
The most famous are probably the mon or kamon. They’re Japan’s version of the heraldic system. Unlike other forms like the famous Western coats of arms, these are very simple geometric shapes, often originating from natural sources such as plants and animals, or pure geometric shapes. These found themselves emblazoned on everything from flags and decorations on carriages and other sorts of transportation, but also as decorative designs on finely made objects.
There are over 30,000 distinct kamon designs, and many of them still remain in active use in formal life in Japan. A perfect example is the stylized paulownia. The symbol has used hundreds of years and is currently the emblem of the Japanese government ever since the Meiji Restoration.
Vehicles
A place where symbols without words naturally arise is in the world of vehicles. Every manufacturer of cars around the world puts a logo at the front of their car as a symbol of who made it. What’s interesting is that Japan takes things a little bit further with their police and fire services.
The police system in Japan is sort of a hybrid national-local system, where there is a national organization that oversees all the police, but most of the actual work is still done and organized locally. Fire systems, just like a lot of other places in the world, are mostly local.
And yet both of these systems have established some national standards. For police cars, one of those is a golden badge depicting the rising sun with rays radially around it. It is placed on police cars in lieu of the standard front badge.
It, alongside the iconic black and white color scheme and red lights on the top of the roof, is one of the most iconic signs of a Japanese police car.
On the firefighter side, there’s a similar story, where in lieu of the manufacturer mark of a car, you instead see a symbol based on a snow crystal. At the center is a sun surrounded by fire hoses, nozzles, and a water column. And it was chosen for its symbolic meanings of water, unity, and purity.
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