Yosegaki Hinomaru

[Faloola]

I found this good luck flag in the trunk of my parents garage several years ago. I've held on to it, and did a little research.
I just pulled it out a couple of weeks ago and decided to do a Google translate. I was able to translate a couple of the characters into words, which appear to be names. As we have a very large world, I was unable to do a Google search on any of the names. So, I'd like to hang it in a glass frame and be proud of it in my living room. My question: what direction do I hang it? The two corners with leather corners would tell me that would be the way to hang it, but the characters tend to read more from the landscape orientation.

 

[mdchachi]

The way you've depicted it here is the correct orientation

 

[thomas]

Oh, that was me resizing and reorienting it. Sorry about that.

 

[Majestic]

武運長久 (Everlasting luck in battle) down the right side
滅私奉公 (Reject the self, and devote your life to service of the country) down the left side.

The rest are names.

 

[Faloola]

The way you've depicted it here is the correct orientation

Thank you for the feedback. As I don't know a lot of these flags and am enjoying all the facts, why are the two corners covered in leather?

 

[Faloola]

武運長久 (Everlasting luck in battle) down the right side
滅私奉公 (Reject the self, and devote your life to service of the country) down the left side.

The rest are names.

Oh my Gosh! Thank you for the translation. I will add this to the back of the frame. As I was Google Translating, I did find the names to be along the bottom.
Do you if there is an on-line archive of Japanese soldier's names?

 

[Majestic]

No, there is no public online archive of lists of soldiers.
The two corners covered in leather would be the hoist side of the flag - the parts where the ropes or the clips get attached to the flag, and those are then attached to the halyard (the rope line that raises/lowers the flag up and down the flagpole).

 

[Majestic]

Looks like the name 奥澤 (Okusawa, Okuzawa) appears a number of times in the names at the bottom. It's possible that the soldier was from a family with this surname. Its a reasonably common surname - spread fairly evenly throughout Japan.

 

[Faloola]

Looks like the name 奥澤 (Okusawa, Okuzawa) appears a number of times in the names at the bottom. It's possible that the soldier was from a family with this surname. Its a reasonably common surname - spread fairly evenly throughout Japan.

Thank you, again, for your insight. I look so forward to frame and hang this in my house with all these notes attached.