Kiri Mon

桐紋

So someone on the ImmortalGeisha forums said this:

五三桐 (Go san kiri)

"Its [the kirimon depicted above] a mon that anyone can use ^^ It is not specifically related to a family but free-to-use so to say ^^  (Source)"

Interesting. This is what Wikipedia says about it:

The Government Seal of Japan, also called the Paulownia Seal (桐紋, kirimon^?) or Paulownia Flower Seal (桐花紋, tōkamon^?), is a mon or a crest used by the Cabinet of Japan and the Government of Japan on official documents. One version is used as the official emblem of the office of the Prime Minister of Japan. It resembles a stylized paulownia flower with 5-7-5 leaves. It was the crest of the Toyotomi clan.
The go-shichi no kiri (literally in English Paulownia of 5-7), as it is alternatively called, represents the democratically elected representatives of the government as a contrast to the chrysanthemum of the Imperial Seal of Japan, which represents the Emperor of Japan, who is the symbol of the sovereignty of the state.

Again, from ImmortalGeisha Wiki:

Here is another description that I found on the net (from here).

Okay, so I've read it a few times. I wonder why the wikipedia page doesn't mention the "every man" use of it? I would like to find an academic source to confirm it (doing that in English will probably be a problem though. If anyone reading this happens to know one, please comment!)

Looking through Ichiroya certainly confirms this observation. A large part of their kurotomesode have the kiri mon on them, just like the one pictured below:

(Tehehe, hmmmm... my sister just moved into a new place with her boyfriend recently and my brother has a newgirlfriend..... Time to buy a  kurotomesode with a kirimon!!!! OMG OMG OMG THIS ONE WOULD MATCH MY OBI ~SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE~ )