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Boongie · 29 Oct 2020

Hello. I found this flag with the red center appearing to be stiched in. Any translation assistance would be appreciated. Do the characters look like they were written by different people?
Condition is excellent. I am hoping this flag is authentic and not a replica or fake.
Thank you very much.
Steve

Majestic · 29 Oct 2020

Hard to say. The red seal says 朝鮮神宮 (Chōsen Jingū), which was a shintō shrine built in Seoul during the era of Japanese occupation of Korea. (The shrine was dismantled after the war).
The signatures and slogans are typical: "certain victory", "good luck in battle", etc... The addressee appears to be Shimizu Toshio, whose name appears prominently on the right. Next to that is a line that says "Older brother, Fight with Japanese spirit!", which is something slightly unexpected. The other signatures...there is a similarity to a lot of them, but I couldn't say with any confidence whether this is an authentic relic, or something doctored up after the war. It doesn't look like an obvious fake.

Boongie · 29 Oct 2020

Thank you very much.

Boongie · 29 Oct 2020

It is quite a clean flag, which gave me some concern. On the other hand, there is probably a way to make modern flags look old.

Boongie · 29 Oct 2020

Majestic said:
Hard to say. The red seal says 朝鮮神宮 (Chōsen Jingū), which was a shintō shrine built in Seoul during the era of Japanese occupation of Korea. (The shrine was dismantled after the war).
The signatures and slogans are typical: "certain victory", "good luck in battle", etc... The addressee appears to be Shimizu Toshio, whose name appears prominently on the right. Next to that is a line that says "Older brother, Fight with Japanese spirit!", which is something slightly unexpected. The other signatures...there is a similarity to a lot of them, but I couldn't say with any confidence whether this is an authentic relic, or something doctored up after the war. It doesn't look like an obvious fake.

If I may ask another question, would it be likely that a shrine in Korea would be stamped on a yosegaki hinomaru? If yes, does that mean that the flag was in Korea at one time?

jeeplover · 29 Oct 2020

Korea was a japanese colony from 1905 -1945 the jinsen arsenal was there. i guess official it is 1910 - 1945 there was also an arsenal in china MUKDEN .

Boongie · 29 Oct 2020

jeeplover said:
Korea was a japanese colony from 1905 -1945 the jinsen arsenal was there.

Yes. Is it possible then that a Japanese soldier left Japan with his signed flag, went to Korea, then had the shrine stamp applied there?

jeeplover · 29 Oct 2020

no no well i guess but no. the Koreans were conscripted into the japanese army i may be wrong but i am thinking this is the case with this flag. why? well one there is a shrine stamp from Korea two the statement fight with japanese spirit. this suggest to me he may not have been native japanese possibly Korean? we will let others chime in but this is my opinion.

jeeplover · 29 Oct 2020

no he would not wright in Korean all Korean culture was banned they were even forced to change there names

jeeplover · 29 Oct 2020

check this out there is a movie about it to.
The mystery of Yang Kyoungjong, the only soldier to have fought on three sides of a war

Toritoribe · 29 Oct 2020

Boongie said:
I am hoping this flag is authentic and not a replica or fake.

My impression is negative. Several signatures were written by the same hand. (The writer is not a single person, though.)

Boongie · 29 Oct 2020

Toritoribe said:
My impression is negative. Several signatures were written by the same hand. (The writer is not a single person, though.)

Thank you for your thoughts. I was initially concerned because the flag is so clean, as is the stiching of the red insert.

jeeplover · 29 Oct 2020

stitched rising sun is not a issue it was done. ok i got a picture from the book (imperial japanese good luck flags and one thousand stitch belts) (pg)24 it talks about the construction of the flags

Boongie · 29 Oct 2020

jeeplover said:
stitched rising sun is not a issue it was done. ok i got a picture from the book (imperial japanese good luck flags and one thousand stitch belts) (pg)24 it talks about the construction of the flags

Yes, I have seen in Michael Bortner's book that it was done. The stiching in the picture that I posted above shows what appears to be very precise machine stiching. I suppose that could have be done. Unfortunately I have not had the opportunity to see any yosegaki hinomaru in person with a stiched in red center.

Majestic · 30 Oct 2020

Boongie said:
If I may ask another question, would it be likely that a shrine in Korea would be stamped on a yosegaki hinomaru? If yes, does that mean that the flag was in Korea at one time?

If its authentic, I would say the owner and his friends were Japanese people living in Seoul, and they procured the flag for him at the shrine (or had it stamped at the shrine). Maybe he was a businessman in colonial Korea. Or student, or bureaucrat, or teacher. Anyway, its something unusual, but that stamp by itself doesn't make me feel suspicious.

jeeplover · 31 Oct 2020

i think it is a flag that deserves more research. the Korea connection is cool.

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