Fascinating. Thank you. While I can certainly see the “family resemblance” between the two 3-symbol items, recognizing that connection in the wild would be quite another matter. But it is very pretty.
These logos as visual poetic homages to kanji is a very different sort of thing than what logos are built from and recognized as in alphabetic languages. Not too far under the surface this suggests a very different form of perception of the world for people raised in pictographic languages vice alphabetic ones.
My initials are the same as those used to abbreviate a well-known state university about 1000 miles away.
Back in the 80s, my GF managed to apply for (and obtain) a personalized license plate for me to use on my classic muscle car. (Side note: She had it for about a month, during which time she kept it a secret as she waited for my birthday. My existing license plate was, of course, not legal to use during this period. It’s a miracle I didn’t get stopped for this.) I showed appreciation for the new personalized plate and put it on my car.
About a month later, I noticed that people were honking their horns at me as I was driving to work. Some of them were yelling and a couple of them were even flipping me off. I was mystified. I mentioned it to a couple people when I got to work and they immediately pointed out that our local university was playing basketball against the out-of-state university that evening to advance in a national championship play-off. My license plate gave everyone the impression that I was a graduate or a fan of that distant university.
I got a new license plate a few days later. I was pretty confident that this was going to come up again in the future since both schools were basketball powerhouses.
True, but thinking about it back then, if I had been stopped for any reason (speeding, failure to come to a complete stop) or if I had received a parking ticket, I might have had quite a shock. “What do you mean this isn’t a valid plate?”
Also, I believe that I had (unknown to me) the responsibility to turn in the old plate within 10 days.
And, yes…she had forged my signature to do all this.