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Military banner, 1800s
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
Silk
Eisei-Bunko Museum, 4233
© Eisei Bunko, Japan.

This military banner was used by Hosokawa Yoshikuni (1835–1876). The Hosokawa used a number of variant banner designs before Hosokawa Tadatoshi (1586–1641) standardized the family’s banner to have horizontal bands over the nine-planet crest in black on a white background, as in this example. Even then, subtle variations persisted.

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