Japanese Persona Passed SCA
Your alternate name and badge have been registered:
Gillian MacLachlan de Holrode. Alternate name Tachibana no Hiromasa and badge.
Vert, a crane volant contourny, wings addorsed and on a chief argent three Japanese maple leaves gules.
There was some question about the registerability of Japanese maples leaves and whether they were known to Europeans in period. Eastern Crown provided some research into the question, which is summarized here:
In the late Ming period (1368-1644), Chinese porcelains were exported to Europe and Japan by the Dutch and Portuguese, and earlier to the Middle East. Japanese imari ware was first exported by the Dutch East India company c. 1650, with more than 50,000 pieces exported by 1659. Maples were listed as a common motif in imari ware. [Goro Shimura, The Story of Imari: The Symbols and Mysteries of Antique Japanese Porcelain; http://books.google.com/books?id=p9JqaKSNah4C&pg=PA25]
An example of 16th C (Momoyama Period) lacquerware that was produced for the European market is in the Kyoto Museum [http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/syuzou/meihin_%83%7B%83%5E%83%93%83%7D%83b%83v%8C%C3%82%A2/urusi/item03.html]. The item description is: "This chest is an example of 'Nanban (Southern Barbarian) lacquerware,' produced for the European market....The lid and body of this chest are decorated with designs of birds and animals, including...maple...The great number of existing examples suggest that a large number of such export chests were produced to order for Europeans."
Therefore, we are giving the submitter the benefit of the doubt: Japanese maple leaves are allowed as flora native to Asia, but known to Europeans in period. They will be considered artistic variants of European maple leaves, blazoned, but not granting difference.
There is a step from period practice for use of the Japanese maple leaves, which are non-European flora not known to be used as charges in period European heraldry.
Gillian MacLachlan de Holrode. Alternate name Tachibana no Hiromasa and badge.
Vert, a crane volant contourny, wings addorsed and on a chief argent three Japanese maple leaves gules.
There was some question about the registerability of Japanese maples leaves and whether they were known to Europeans in period. Eastern Crown provided some research into the question, which is summarized here:
In the late Ming period (1368-1644), Chinese porcelains were exported to Europe and Japan by the Dutch and Portuguese, and earlier to the Middle East. Japanese imari ware was first exported by the Dutch East India company c. 1650, with more than 50,000 pieces exported by 1659. Maples were listed as a common motif in imari ware. [Goro Shimura, The Story of Imari: The Symbols and Mysteries of Antique Japanese Porcelain; http://books.google.com/books?id=p9JqaKSNah4C&pg=PA25]
An example of 16th C (Momoyama Period) lacquerware that was produced for the European market is in the Kyoto Museum [http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/syuzou/meihin_%83%7B%83%5E%83%93%83%7D%83b%83v%8C%C3%82%A2/urusi/item03.html]. The item description is: "This chest is an example of 'Nanban (Southern Barbarian) lacquerware,' produced for the European market....The lid and body of this chest are decorated with designs of birds and animals, including...maple...The great number of existing examples suggest that a large number of such export chests were produced to order for Europeans."
Therefore, we are giving the submitter the benefit of the doubt: Japanese maple leaves are allowed as flora native to Asia, but known to Europeans in period. They will be considered artistic variants of European maple leaves, blazoned, but not granting difference.
There is a step from period practice for use of the Japanese maple leaves, which are non-European flora not known to be used as charges in period European heraldry.