Maeda Family Crest

My grandfather came from Wakayama Japan in the late 1800's, but came to Hawaii where he met my grandmother and married her. I have a picture of the kimono she wore for their wedding with a kamon on it. Her family said they did not have a ka-mon and it was my grandfathers ka-mon. Trying to research it, I found a totally different Maeda crest on the internet. How do I know which one is the correct one. I know that 1 Maeda crest online does not belong to all the Maeda's. I'm so confused can someone help me?

Hi, kamalii

I'm a native Japanese.

Generally, even if several persons have the same family name Maeda, their family crests are different according to what Maeda family they come from. This is due to historical reasons.


To identify what is exactly your family crest, ask someone still alive at the original house which your grandfather came from (The family living at this house is called Honke; its literal translation is Mainstream Family).

If there is no one living at the original house, find and ask a Buddhist monk (usually located near the original house) who still keeps old records of the original house.

If you can not find the original house or such a Buddhist monk, you will usually ask a specialist research company by paying
a lot of money (it needs at least 30,000 yen plus transport expense). This money will not be returned to you even if the company's staffs can not identify the exact family crest.

Anyway, it's very difficult to find your old records like family crest without another person's help.

Just to correct two typos of my last answer:

Wrong:
their family crests are different according to ...
Correct:
their family crests are SOMETIMES different according to ...

Wrong:
find and ask a Buddhist monk (usually located near the original house) ...
Correct:
find and ask a Buddhist monk (usually LIVING near the original house) ...

Anyway, finding your (and your grandfather's) original house is a key to solve your problem.

This one seems to be the official Maeda crest.

http://www2.harimaya.com/sengoku/html/maeda.html

Even Ume-shape crests have this much variety. Most families, including the sengoku Maeda who use these crests, claimed that their families were derived from Sugawara Michizane, the 11th century historical figure who used the original ume crest.

http://minabe.net/gaku/bijyutsu/kamon.html

I'm not sure how Maeda's crest ended up in Wakayama where ruled by Tokugawa sub-families in the Edo era. Again over 100 different families used Ume-shape crests, and even your grandfather's crest was Ume, it might not be of Maeda's. I googled and from Wakayama, the Yuasa Family also used Ume crest.