The history of
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Samurai were a class of Japanese military nobility who served a feudal lord and/or the Japanese Emperor. The word samurai derives from the Japanese verb "samorau," which means "to serve."
Samurai came into power as a warrior class in the early 12th century and were subsequently disbanned, virtually becoming extinct, in the late 1880s with the fall of the feudal system of Japan and the rise of industry and westernization. Born and raised in Kitakyushu, a town in the Southern Japan Prefecture of Fukuoka,
Miho Shiraki Sensei is a descendant of a long line of samurai warriors of feudal Japan. Growing up, Miho had heard stories about her family's ancestors being pacifist, Shinto priests. What she didn't really know until recently was why did those ancestors become Shinto priests in the first place? Miho's mother told her about samurai of the Shiraki family who had left the samurai class and became pacifists to atone for their violent past.
Sometime between 1100 and 1800 lived this samurai-turned-Shinto priest family named Shiraki. This particular family had no children, yet it was still very important to them to carry on the name of Shiraki. So they did something somewhat unorthodox, at the time. Since they had no children, they arranged for a marriage between a second family with only a daughter and a third family with a second-born son.
In return for arranging this marriage, the families of the young couple agreed to take on and perpetuate the priests' family name of Shiraki. This was a mutually beneficial arrangement for the two families since the Shiraki priests were the keepers of a highly respected Shinto shrine in Southern Japan, Munakata Taisha shrine of Kyushu. The newly married couple (Miho's ancestors) inherited responsibility for this shrine.
Miho's family crest is very unique. Japanese family crests are almost always circular and named after the male's family. However, Miho's family crest is a three-pronged white tree surrounded by a hexagon. The hexagon shape emphasizes the female elements in Japanese crest symbology. Use of the hexagon, instead of the traditional circle for the family crest appears to have been part of the agreement made between the three families at the time of the unorthodox marriage. This was meant to honor the Shiraki family name and the unique family arrangement made by these three families to carry on the name of Shiraki. The family crest has remained unchanged in Miho's family since this unique joining of families.