A MON is a Japanese heraldric device used in much the same way as it was here in Europe. It is quite common for dojo to sport their own mon, and ours is no exception.
It was designed by a senior member of our dojo at the time – Mikey Rooney – and represents the combination of the Japanese red-sun and a Celtic Knot.
The Japanese under the mon on our flag reads “Edinburgh Kendokai” or “Edinburgh Kendo Club.”
Please note that the katakana that we use to represent EDINBURGH is not the standard Japanese version. The normal Japanese sounds like “Ejinbara” but the phonetic that we use is more closely related to how its actually pronounced in Scotland.
The 13th European Kendo Championships MON (1995)
For historical purposes I thought I’d add the mon that was used when Scotland hosted the European Kendo Championships in 1995.
This mon was designed by the then head instructor in Edinburgh – Romilly Squires – and is the combination of a thistle and a men… very Scottish!!
