Monmon

The title Monmon refers to crests, patterns, or tattoos — depending on the kanji used, the term can denote the family mon (heraldic emblems) that identified Genpei-period warriors on the battlefield, or the patterned tattoo work associated with later folk imagery. In Takeda's Saru series, the print most plausibly stages the proliferation of mon: roundels of paulownia, hollyhock, butterfly, or chrysanthemum spread across robes, banners, and armor, here transposed onto the bodies of monkey-retainers. Mokuhanga is well suited to this subject, since separate color blocks can register each crest as a flat, hard-edged shape on [washi](/glossary/washi) without naturalistic shading. The Kyoto-printed sheet, cut and burnished in the Tadashi Toda workshop, exploits the graphic clarity of traditional mon design. Within Takeda's broader practice — which moved restlessly between cartooning, illustration, painting, and print — Monmon is characteristic of his attention to surface ornament as a vehicle for satire, treating the inherited iconography of warrior identity as a system of visual signs to be played with.