Britain's leading historian of Samurai warfare describes, explains and illustrates the strikingly colourful heraldry of the great warring families and their feudal armies in medieval Japan. Illustrated with many identified examples, this title traces the story from the earliest display of family mon in the eighth century and the simple hata-jirushi coloured flags of the 12th century Taira and Minamoto wars, through the great flowering of clan armies in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods (13th-15th centuries), to the nobori marking systematic unit organization in the climactic struggles for the shogunate in the 16th century.

Illustrated by: Angus McBride