What did Oriental families (Japanese, Korean, etc.) have in place of the coat-of-arms?
Firstly, as a genealogist, I can tell you that, contrary to common belief, coats-of-arms do not belong to families, but to individuals. People in particular families used specific devices to indicate relationship, but different combinations of these appeared in each generation. The right side of the arms was the father’s device, the left, the mother’s. As people tried to show their relationships to significant families, coats of arms became very complicated, but, it is because of these combinations, that we can tell, to whom a coat of arms belonged (ie we can see the family device, and the devices of the mother, and perhaps the grandparents). Each person had to apply for arms from the College of Arms, registering his or her own arms. They were the only ones who could legally bear them. I cannot see that this sort of practice was common in North Asia. Genealogy, as I have heard, was recorded around the eaves of family temples, and, in books. A woman I was speaking to the other day had j
