Crows, and especially ravens, often feature in European legends or mythology as portents or harbingers of doom or death, because of their dark plumage, unnerving calls, and tendency to eat carrion.

English folklore

A version of the three crows is probably based on the three ravens folk tale where three crows plot to devour the corpse of a dead knight only to be thwarted by the knight's hawk, hound and mistress.

Three crows are also often implicated in the parliament of crows where three crows preside over a larger number of crows and sit in judgment over the fate of another crow. The verdict sometimes results in a crow being set upon by all the other crows. This behavior and their tendency to show up at battle fields and the scenes of murders may be explain the collective term for crows as being a 'murder of crows'.

Russian folklore

Three crows also refers to a tale of three crows (a father, mother and son crow) bothering the king.

Japanese culture

The Three Crows (三羽烏) may refer to the group of three go

Go (board game)

Go , is an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago...

 players

Go players

This page gives an overview of well-known players of the game of Go throughout the ages. The page has been divided into sections based on the era in which the Go players played and the country in which they played. As this was not necessarily their country of birth, a flag of that country precedes...

 who are part of the triumvirate

Triumvirate

A triumvirate is a political regime dominated by three powerful individuals, each a triumvir . The arrangement can be formal or informal, and though the three are usually equal on paper, in reality this is rarely the case...

 of certain eras in go history. These players include Hideyuki Fujisawa

Hideyuki Fujisawa

, also known as Shuko Fujisawa, was a Japanese professional Go player.- Biography :Hideyuki Fujisawa was born in Yokohama, Japan. He was one of the best players during his era. One of the "Three Crows" along with Yamabe Toshiro and Keizo Suzuki...

, Keizo Suzuki

Keizo Suzuki

was a professional Go player.-Biography:Keizo Suzuki was a promising Japanese go player - one of the "Three Crows" of the 1940s and early 50's. He died a premature death at 18 from tuberculosis.-External links:**...

, and Toshiro Yamabe

Toshiro Yamabe

was a professional Go player.-Biography:Toshiro was a student of Mukai Kazuo from 1941. He became shodan professional at the Nihon Ki-in in 1941, and reached 9 dan in 1969. He was known for his early resignations of games, sometimes claiming that he refused to play on because of his opponents...

 (1940s). Although, since Suzuki died young, he was replaced by Takeo Kajiwara

Takeo Kajiwara

was a professional Go player.- Biography :Kajiwara studied under Riichi Sekiyama 9 dan until Kajiwara became a 1 dan in the autumn of 1937. He was promoted to 9 dan in 1965. Kajiwara left the Nihon Ki-in in 1947 with seven other professionals to create a rival organization, the Igo Shisha. He...

. Hashimoto Utaro, Murashima Yoshinori, and Shinohara Masami (1950s). Fujisawa Hosai, Takagawa Kaku, and Sakata Eio (1960s). Ishida Yoshio, Kato Masao and Takemiya Masaki (Kitani dojo). In Japanese the term is used of triumvirates of other fields as well, e.g. sumo

Sumo

is a competitive full-contact sport where a wrestler attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally...

 and baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

. In the Kwantung Army of Imperial Japan for instance, the Three Crows refer to the Triumvirate of Army War College 24th class graduate Kenji Doihara

Kenji Doihara

was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria for which he earned fame taking the nickname 'Lawrence of Manchuria', a reference to the Lawrence of Arabia....

, Army War College 28th class graduate Itagaki Seishiro

Itagaki Seishiro

was a General in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II and a War Minister.-Overview:Itagaki was born in Morioka city, Iwate prefecture into a samurai class family formerly serving the Nanbu clan of Morioka Domain. He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1904...

 and Army War College 30th class Military Sword Club member Kanji Ishiwara: the main masterminds of the Mukden Incident and the subsequent Invasion of China.

Modern Usage

Stock market investors sometimes refer to a three crows as a pattern of successive declining stock prices over three days often identified by overlapping candlestick patterns. Three crows are often seen as a warning of a period of powerful selling pressure on the stock market.