Page "Mitsubishi Motors" Paragraph 9

The logo of three red diamonds, shared with over forty other companies within the keiretsu, predates Mitsubishi Motors itself by almost a century.

It was chosen by Iwasaki Yatarō, the founder of Mitsubishi, as it was suggestive of the emblem of the Tosa Clan who first employed him, and because his own family crest was three rhombuses stacked atop each other.

The name Mitsubishi is a portmanteau of mitsu (" three ") and hishi ( literally, " water chestnut ", often used in Japanese to denote a diamond or rhombus ).