Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/126

 The badges here spoken of began to be devised and used during the wars of the Taira and the Minamoto, according to tradition, but they probably existed at an earlier epoch. Their original purpose was to distinguish ally from enemy, and by degrees the habit of blazoning them on garments became almost universal among the military class. A sixteen-petalled chrysanthemum and a bunch of Paulownia leaves and buds were the Imperial badges, and their employment was interdicted to all subjects. When and under what circumstances the chrysanthemum and the Paulownia began to be regarded as Imperial badges, there has not been any successful attempt to determine. So far as is known, the chrysanthemum appeared for the first time upon the hilt of a sword belonging to the Emperor Gotoba (1186–1198), and it certainly became the Imperial badge from that time. No other object occupies an equally important place in Japanese decorative art. It is used independently, or as a member of more or less elaborate designs, with remarkable ingenuity and effect. But as to Japan's title to have invented this graceful decorative motive, it is to be observed that on an early gold ornament from Camirus now in the British Museum—an ornament dating from an era many centuries before Christ—the chrysanthemum enters the decorative scheme in precisely the form given to it by Japanese artists, the number of petals alone being different. From Rhodes