Two WWII flags with kanji

Kilroy · 17 Dec 2021

I've collected WW2 Militaria for well over 50 years , mostly German & Japanese . I have 5 or 6 Japanese Flags in the collection and always respected what they represented and how each "told" a different story. Years ago we never worried about fakes but , that's certainly changed today. Anyway , I was offered 2 Japanese Flags yesterday ...they came from an old collection . The Collector was in his 80's and passed away and they're selling his Collection off. The 1st Flag with the stain is textbook ....But , I never saw the style with less Kanji and repeated Red Ink Stamps so I set that aside. I decided to buy the one with the stain first. I'm still thinking about the other one with the red stamps ...it looks like the same stamp mark on it and almost the same penmanship for the Kanji. Could it have been a Unit flag or , maybe a generic Factory Good Luck Flag ? I'm not familiar with the style so maybe one of you could comment if you've seen others like it and know what that red stamp means. Below you can see the one I bought with the Stains on it and a lot more Kanji - - Like many collectors, I have no idea what it says and hopefully one of our members here could let me know

mdchachi · 17 Dec 2021

The experts will chime in but I agree that the stamped one looks suspect. The stamp I think says 水木白 which I guess is a name?
The "names" near the corner closeup are all written in the same penmanship and some don't look like proper names. For example the second one, 軍軍兵, says "army troops." It could be a name such as GUN GUNPEI but that would be unusual. And notice that the third and last names in that corner have repeated kanjis as if somebody was just making names up. There's date on the side of 十九年三月十三日 which is March 13, 1944.

Kilroy · 18 Dec 2021

I agree , the one with the red stamps and less writing worried me , that's why I didn't buy it ...but I'd love to know what this one covered with Kanji says

mdchachi · 18 Dec 2021

Kilroy said:
but I'd love to know what this one covered with Kanji says

Well it's mostly a bunch of names as usual. Though it's interesting to see all of the 10 or so names from the Onodera 小野寺 family. Which, according to this, was a very prominent, powerful family. Again, you'll have to wait for the board experts for more details.

Majestic · 18 Dec 2021

Yes, mostly names with a few slogans. Across the top is the near-universal, "Pray for everlasting luck in battle".
Amonth the other names are
Sasaki
Satō
Gotō
Togashi
Kutsuzawa

It looks like it was presented to two people on the occasion of their joining the military:
Sasaki Masaharu (佐々木正治) , and Kamei Eisuke (亀井栄助)

Majestic · 18 Dec 2021

The other one has a date of March 23, 1944 on it. Radiating out from the center to the four corners, are the names of four different army/navy divisions (Ishikawa 9th Military Transport Division, etc.). In between are patriotic slogans, but the orientations are all funny. Hard to tell if its real or not. Its a bit unusual. (But with such specific division names, it should be possible to verify it. It would take someone with access to a fairly deep database of Imperial Japan military data).

Kilroy · 20 Dec 2021

mdchachi said:
Well it's mostly a bunch of names as usual. Though it's interesting to see all of the 10 or so names from the Onodera 小野寺 family. Which, according to this, was a very prominent, powerful family. Again, you'll have to wait for the board experts for more details.

Thanks for that ...this at least helps put a "Face" on the Flag with a Family connection. As you said , let's see if any other collectors have any info on it as well ...thanks !!

Kilroy · 20 Dec 2021

Majestic said:
Yes, mostly names with a few slogans. Across the top is the near-universal, "Pray for everlasting luck in battle".
Amonth the other names are
Sasaki
Satō
Gotō
Togashi
Kutsuzawa

It looks like it was presented to two people on the occasion of their joining the military:
Sasaki Masaharu (佐々木正治) , and Kamei Eisuke (亀井栄助)

I never heard of one Flag being presented to 2 Soldiers ...unless , it was a Family keepsake left at Home while their Boys were deployed ? And I agree ..the strange orientation/design is what threw me and how the penmanship looked like the same person wrote it all --Also , MDChachi's comment quote-" And notice that the third and last names in that corner have repeated kanjis as if somebody was just making names up. " kinda confirms my gut feeling . Even though it came from an old collection , it could have been made up in 1946 to sell to occupation troops as a souvenir. Maybe someone else will chime in (fingers crossed)

Majestic · 20 Dec 2021

The kanji radiating to the corners are all the names (supposedly) of specific army/navy sections or officers, and the writing runs vertically so what looks like repetitions are actually coincidences created by the orientation of the phrases

陸軍第九師 Rikugun Dai-kyūshi
海軍陸難民 Kaigun/riku nanmin
歩兵第三師 Hohei Dai-sanshi

Even with that, I'm not sure these are legitimate troop or section names.

mdchachi · 20 Dec 2021

When I was talking about repeating kanji, I was talking about the corner.

Majestic · 21 Dec 2021

Yes - the writing is vertical (radiating from the center to the corner). So these kanji aren't repeating.

Column 1
陸軍第九師 Rikugun Dai-kyūshi
Column 2
海軍陸難民 Kaigun/riku nanmin
Column 3
歩兵第三師 Hohei Dai-sanshi

mdchachi · 21 Dec 2021

Majestic said:
Yes - the writing is vertical (radiating from the center to the corner). So these kanji aren't repeating.

Column 1
陸軍第九師 Rikugun Dai-kyūshi
Column 2
海軍陸難民 Kaigun/riku nanmin
Column 3
歩兵第三師 Hohei Dai-sanshi

Oh. Oops.

Two WWII flags with kanji

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