My wife and I often welcome lonesome elderly to our genkan for some food and conversation. What can be learned from them is often astounding. Today, an elderly gent taught me that the renkon (蓮根 - lotus root) was brought to Kumamoto hundreds of years ago to provide nutrition - sort of like potatoes to the Irish, as it can be grown on very marginal land - and that the Hosokawa Crest is based on this. While I can’t account for its veracity, what the elderly can teach you, if you just listen, even if it’s just a folk story, is amazing. - William
(Addendum: Wikipedia has a very different explanation of the origin, and the fact that Kiyomasa had adopted his crest prior to his transfer to Kumamoto throws a big shadow on my friend’s story. Correlation is not causation - but it is still interesting.)