Hi all - sorry to be late to the party (both in answering this post and in answering something for Kevin - that comes next Kevin, I promise). OK, you wanted my answer, so better go get a cuppa and settle in… 
Well, I confess that my very first thought when the mon came up on the screen was “hmm, that reminds me of a shuriken”. (That’s where a lady’s brain goes when she had an ex-boyfriend who was an early black belt ninja graduate of Hayes-sensei… {grin}) I do like the original design, and actually, the fact that it may be perceived as slightly “martial” is totally in keeping with our Fearless Leader Kyle, since it combines two things dear to his heart.
Moving right along to many of the suggestions and designs shown as alternates to the original one, I must agree with most or all of what several members, specifically Kevin, Gwyn, Eric, Norm, Karl, Liam and Jamie, have said about the design. Simple and clean is generally a more memorable logo than busy and cluttered. You already have a good design on your hands, and messing it up, or “prettifying” it does not make it any better.
I don’t see why we need to have flowers (or other "decoration) in the logo. I agree with Karl about the geometric imbalance of soft, round flower petals alongside the the “stronger” lines of the bachi. If there were a reason for such a juxtaposition, great, but in our case, there is none and it does look “off”. If your aim is to have someone recognize your logo as shamisen-specific, the more you clutter up your original design, the less likely that will happen. And the busier it is, the more likely that your clever little trick of having the itomaki in the centre (which is rather a nice “Japanese-style” touch of subtlety) will get even more lost. Normally when flora/fauna is used, it’s to represent something like a regional/national flower, etc. However, we are an international society. So there is no single country’s flower/tree/bird/emblem/whatever that would represent Bachido, and certainly not sakura. (Sakura is a somewhat overused emblem for many, many Japan-related societies and things Japanese, poor little flower.) We are trying to demonstrate that shamisen knows no boundaries, that it is for everyone everywhere. So I personally don’t think that putting Japanese flowers into the design does anything to bring that idea across. And as for Masahiro’s design of the intersecting squares with the sakura in the middle, with respect, while it is an attractive and clean design, it doesn’t in any way bring shamisen to mind, have an “international” feeling, etc… (Sorry, Masahiro-san!)
I had the simple mon next to Nitta san’s, and I couldn’t help but feel that it was thin and sparse. […]
I think you’re confusing “clean and contemporary” with “thin and sparse”… And anyway, what’s wrong with sparse - that’s kind of the epitome of Japanese art, if you think about it…
one idea could be to have a ring and then the bachi hand that we have at the top of the page inside. The black bachi would just be outlined with a thin white color.
When I read that and started thinking about what some people had offered as ideas up to the point I started writing this reply, what came to me was to have one single bachi, standing on its end, blade up, with three increasingly thick lines behind/through/over it. In a circle. With nothing else. Clean and simple. Then, as I was writing this reply, since it was taking so long, I thought I should reload the page. I saw that Jamie has essentially reproduced almost exactly what I was thinking of (for which I’m grateful, Jamie, 'cause I can’t draw/design worth a damn! {lol}), except he’s still using the 3-bachi steering wheel idea. If you take Jamie’s design, use only one vertical bachi, make the three lines have three different thicknesses as in a shamisen, and stick that single bachi and strings into a circular mon, you’d have something that was shamisen-specific, didn’t look like a steering wheel/weapon/nuclear waste symbol, etc., and would be clean, simple and sharp. It would also reproduce well in print, online, in silk screening, etched on product, etc.
No matter what the design is there is always going to be confusion when its seen by someone who has no connection or experience with shamisen. So I think that shouldn’t influence this decision.
I agree.
For the T-shirts, my opinion is that the mon was a little big on the front side.
I agree.
Black and white has so dark traditional image and looks stiff.
Would it perhaps look less “stiff”/better if the black and white were reversed? For a mon, I have to say that I personally prefer a black and white one to any colouration (including Kyle’s first gray “flower”). Maybe that’s because black and white is the most traditional for mon, or because black and white brings the design itself forward, rather than bringing colour forward, if you get my drift. As for when it’s on T-shirts and swag, that’s a different story, and in that case, one could play with colour in all sorts of ways to satisfy at a consumer level.
How about we propose divisions of bachido but all part of the main section o: ? we could have different mon’s but they all have the bachido mon somewhere on each piece
Normally, when you try to brand or market something (which is basically what Kyle is trying to do with Bachido, after all), you want brand/logo etc. recognition that will work across all platforms. Especially since Bachido is basically just starting up, as it were, having multiple logos or multiple variations of a base logo does not sound like the best way to get brand recognition. So I suggest we should stick with a single logo. Sorry, my advertising and marketing side is coming out pretty strongly in this post, what can I say… 
Anyway, just to recap, my vote is for simple and clean. So, of what’s been discussed and/or shown in this post so far: I do like your original design. I also like Jamie’s design of the three bachi with the strings (I find the strings help offset the “steering wheel” effect). And I think I might like my idea of the single bachi with strings, but I’d have to see it first to be sure (which ain’t gonna happen if it’s me who’s got to come up with the design! :-D). FWIW.
Masahiro, in Samurai lineage??
