Japanese rebus monogram

A Japanese rebus monogram is a monogram in a particular style, which spells a name via a rebus, as a form of Japanese wordplay or visual pun. Today they are most often seen in corporate logos or product logos.

These symbols are particularly common traditional food brands, notably soy sauce. The most familiar example globally is the logo for Yamasa soy sauce, which is a ∧ with a サ under it. This is read as Yama, for yama (山^?, mountain) (symbolized by the ∧) + sa (サ^?, katakana character for sa).

The monogram is composed of two parts: one a Japanese character, most often kanji, but also katakana or hiragana; the other a simple symbol, such as a circle or square. The symbol is pronounced according to its name, and together (in either order, but generally symbol first) these form a Japanese name.

Japanese family names are generally two kanji characters, each usually of one or two morae – hence one or two hiragana or katakana if written that way – and thus can be represented as one symbol plus one kanji character, sometimes one hiragana or katakana. Only a few symbols are used, and thus only a few names can be written as a monogram this way. A name may be represented by a symbol that does not correspond to it but is homophonous – further punning – which is aided by the large degree of homophony in Japanese. For example, kane (金^?, metal) in a name may be represented by the symbol ┐, though this actually corresponds to kane (矩^?, carpenter's square); or -en (園^?, ... garden) in a name may be represented by the symbol ○, though this actually corresponds to en (円^?, circle).

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