gatō mon'yō 瓦当文様

Patterns, motifs, designs applied to the circular antefixes *gatō 瓦当 on semi-cylindrical eave-end tiles *nokimarugawara 軒丸瓦 and to the pendant bands added to broad, concave eave-end tiles *nokihiragawara 軒平瓦. From the 7th-11th century, the most popular motifs decorating the antefixes of semi-cylindrical eave-end tiles were variations of stylized lotus patterns *rengemon 蓮華文. Patterns on the pendant bands of broad, concave eave-end tiles were mainly arabesques *karakusamon 唐草文 based on stylized vines, one example being honeysuckle *nindō karakusamon 忍冬唐草文, which were generally symmetrically arranged around a central curvilinear motif. Occasionally the arabesque was a continuing pattern with no central motif *henkō karakusamon 扁行唐草文. A grape pattern tile *budō karakusamon 葡萄唐草文, dated late 7th century, was unearthed at Okadera 岡寺 in Nara. Although these motifs were continued into and beyond the 12th century, generally their use declined. New motifs began to replace the old lotus and arabesque patterns. The comma pattern *tomoemon 巴文 was used most frequently on the pendant disks of semi-cylindrical tiles but less often on the pendant bands of the broad, concave, eave-end tiles. For an example of the comma pattern on the broad, concave eave-end tile (mid-10th century) unearthed at Byōdōin 平等院, Kyoto. Other popular motifs from the 11th century were patterns of Buddhist ritual implements *sankoshomon 三鈷杵文, stylized sword tips *kentōmon 剣頭文, tiles embellished with the temple's name, Sanskrit characters *bonjimon 梵字文, and from the 16th century on, particularly on castles and palaces, family crests. Family crests decorated both the semi-cylindrical and broad concave eave-end pendants and pendant bands *monjigawara 文字瓦. One example is the paulownia crest kirimon 桐文 used on both types of tiles unearthed at the site of Fushimijō 伏見城 in Kyoto.