Samurai Dice Shimazu

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The mon (family crest) of the Shimazu clan of Kyushu.  The Shimazu had held much land in the southern part of Kyushu for generations.  The Shimazu were descended from Tadahisa who was the military commander under Minamoto Yoritomo from 1187.  The Shimazu were experts at a tactic they used on multiple occasions "the false retreat" that lured many of their enemies to their doom.  Two of the Shimazu's greatest enemies were the Ryuzoji and the Otomo clans, after defeating the Ryuzoji the Shimazu were on the verge of taking out the Otomo and ruling all of Kyushu except the Otomo asked Toyotomi for help who then invaded and conquered Kyushu.  The Shimazu were allowed to keep much of there domain and continue to rule as they had done before.  The Shimazu sided with Ishida against Tokugawa and again were allowed to maintain control of much of their families heritage, even allowed to expand by taking the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa and surrounding islands) in 1609.

Almost all mon can be found to be used by many different samurai throughout the centuries.

.5 Inch ash wooden cube with the mon of the Shimazu family in place of the 6 on the die.