Mon & Tosamurai

Mon & Tosamurai, printed in 1957, presents a family crest (mon) alongside a reference to the Tosa warrior tradition — either a samurai figure or an armorial device. The mon was the heraldic badge of Japanese aristocratic and warrior families, typically rendered in bold graphic designs ideally suited to translation into print. Hashimoto's interest in heraldic geometry would have made the mon a natural subject, its reduction of identity to pure abstract form connecting to his broader interest in the structural logic underlying Japanese visual culture.