Changes in the right direction

[Please Delete]

Or at least, I think it is the the right direction, and I suppose a lot of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Indian persons will agree. What am I talking about? The proposed new Rules for Submission being considered by the College of Heralds.

It is important to remember that this is only what is proposed, and I don't have access to the commentary (does anyone else here have that access on OSCAR?), but I'm thrilled to see proposal 5.E.:

This is a proposal that is part of the Rules rewrite. It may or may not be enacted depending on feedback.

The Society involves increasing numbers of people interested in medieval Asia, and it's far too late to shut the door on that. We have been somewhat inconsistent in what we do and don't allow: early Japanese names are allowed despite no evidence of contact with Europe, while Indian names have been judged under harsher terms. We've had important heralds with Vietnamese names (Vuong Manh, whose name was admittedly registered in 1976).

Therefore, we want to discuss whether we should be more liberal in allowing people to register personal names from places tied to the Silk Road trade, even relatively peripherally (so Vietnamese, Tibetan, etc. as well as Central Asian). In addition, we could allow names from those African and Asian cultures involved in trade with Arabs, even if their contact with Europe is unclear. Basically the standard I'm proposing is allowing the registration of personal names from cultures in which an adventurous person could plausibly have ended up in medieval Europe along documented trade routes, even if it would have required multiple stages (Vietnam to China, by sea to India, by sea to Middle East, and to Europe, for example). So, no Australia, no Polynesia, no New World before Spanish contact would be allowed without evidence that such a person could have reached Europe.

If you know anyone with a vote, I would encourage you to talk to them about this, because I see this rule as a step towards more complete acceptance of non-European personas across the Society. Even if it is not enacted, it is great to see that it is being considered.


-Ii

[Ishikawa Ayame]

18: R is exciting too!

18: R. Non-European Armory - New Other

We currently allow some charges, but disallow many charges and motifs found in non-Western European heraldic traditions (Eastern Europe, Islamic, Japanese).

Non-European charges we already allow include Arabic pen boxes and Japanese well-frames. Those who wish to know more about the styles may refer to an article about Japanese heraldry at heraldry.sca.org/laurel/mons/ and one about Islamic heraldry at www.appletonstudios.com/MamlukHeraldry2001.pdf.

Since we allow people to "bring" names from these areas, why not arms? At the very least, we need to make sure we're consistent on this subject.

Therefore, we propose the following:

that we freely allow the registration of charges that are found in any European heraldic tradition.
that the use of any charge from Islamic and Japanese heraldry be allowed, but be considered a step from period practice if they are not found in European heraldry.
Arms that use two charges from these traditions not found in European heraldry will be allowed only under the documented exceptions allowance, which are simplified below.
Documented exceptions would also allow motifs from non-European armory that violate our style rules (such as complexity and sword and dagger).
Note that this has several implications: a single non-European charge can be used in European-styled arms. But motifs from multiple non-European locations cannot be mixed. Several Japanese or Islamic motifs have been registered even with our current standards; this will just create a formal mechanism for allowing the others.

[Yagyu Jubei Takemori]

This is way cool, I hope that the motion passes. It will make registering easier, though I dont think it will quell the "Burn the heretics" attitude some people have toward non European personae.