The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force ( JMSDF ) had recently launched the first three ships of the Mogami-class multi-mission stealth frigate, out of a planned total of twenty-two. Apart from the lead ship JS Mogami ( FFM-1 ), the others are JS Kumano ( FFM-2 ) and JS Noshiro ( FFM-3 ).
A ship logo mark design competition was opened to the public from 7th May to 6th June 2021 and the results have just been announced three days ago. The winning designs were selected by the respective pre-commissioning ship crew. The Japanese call the ship's crest or emblem the logo mark ( ロゴマーク rogo maku ).
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| Ship logo mark of JS Mogami FFM-1 with the black lion of Nagai. Image : JMSDF |
Mogami ( FFM-1 )
JS Mogami's ship crest is designed by Kurata Yusuke ( 倉田裕典 ) from Tokyo. It features prominently the face of a stylised Black Lion below which the hiragana characters for Mogami ( もがみ ) is displayed. The outer rim has motifs of waves, anchor and the cherry blossoms associated with the JMSDF.
The black lion has its origins in the Black Lion Festival ( 黒獅子祭り kuroshishi matsuri) of Nagai City, Yamagata Prefecture, where the Mogami River flows through. The ritual is held in May annually where all the black lions from each of the forty shrines of the city gather and men would perform the dynamic lion dance and parade through the streets to purify the community.
The lions are all characterized by having black faces, large eyeballs, bared glittering fangs and most uniquely, many legs. Most lion dances are performed by one or two men but this is certainly not the case for the kuroshishi. Learn how the lion heads are crafted out of hard wood and painstakingly transformed into elegant works of art in the hands of the takumi here or watch it below.
Video : Okitama's Folk Handicraft - Black Lion HeadLegend has it that in the Tohoku region a thousand years ago, a beautiful princess fell in love with the general of a rival clan and revealed to him the warfighting tactics of her people. It ultimately resulted in the defeat and death of her father in battle. Pursued by her enemies and in remorse she committed suicide by drowning herself in the river which flows through modern day Nagai City. A large dragon was subsequently sighted swimming upstream. It is said that this dragon god would dance down the river as the black lion of Nagai as it was invited to the annual festival of the local shrine.
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| Black Lion of Nagai. Image : Tukiyama.jp |
Believable or not, the JMSDF certainly hopes that this black lion mascot hailing from the upper Mogami basin would endear the ship to its crew.
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| Ship Logo Mark of JS Kumano FFM-2 featuring the mythical three-legged raven Yatagarasu. Image : JMSDF |
Kumano ( FFM-2 )
JS Kumano's ship crest is designed by Takabe Tsubasa ( 高部 翼 ) from Tokyo. The emblem features the Yatagarasu ( 八咫烏 ), a mythical three-legged raven which on orders from the Goddess Amaterasu, had guided legendary Emperor Jimmu to the plains of Yamato as his expedition army was lost and trapped in the mountains Kumano-guni ( 熊野国 ).
It carries a sacred relic on its neck, the Yata no Kagami ( 八咫鏡 ), a mirror that is effectively the portal between the land of the living and the land of the dead. It has powers to revive the dead and its mission is to guide lost souls back to the netherworld.
The design shows the Yatagarasu soaring above the raging currents of a stormy sea, portraying the ship's attributes of strength and stealth. The typographic characters show the words Kumano in katakana form ( クマノ ).
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| Yatagarasu monument at the Kumano Hongu Taisha Shrine. Photo : Wikipaedia |
More on logo marks in my previous post Sumimasen, Is That The Singaopre Lion On Your Logo Mark? The logo mark designs of these two frigates exemplified the highest attributes of the ships and are thoroughly infused with cultural history of each region of the ship's namesake, making them unique and relevant. With such talented artists and designers among the Japanese community, it is perhaps high time the JMSDF calls for a re-design of JS Ise's not so aesthetic logo mark which might even be bordering on plagiarism.
