is this flag original?

[MikeB]

Is this flag original?

The only other thing I can add (and I hate to gang up,) is that this seller also has listed a "Unit Flag." Authentic "unit flags" are extremelly rare, and I have never seen one that looks like this example. Mike

[gunto]

Hi
Thanks for all the replys.I was near buying it , but the kanji looked wierd to me.
It wasnt for sale fist on ebay , but now it is.I can see in his feedback that he has sold lots of flags with wierd kanji ,all in nice condition.

Thanks for the the help, mates.

Sayonara

Thomas

[MikeB]

Is this flag original?

This comment is really an aside, but what the heck! CB mentioned that some of the kanji characters on this subject flag appeared to have been made by a child/children. I would say that most of the signatures appearing on signed flags came from adults as that was the custom. Badly formed characters find their way onto a signed flag for a variety of reasons (most discussed here,) some legitimate and some not so legit.
Sometimes you will encounter small caricatures of children drawn on a flag and then a name placed next to it. Adults would do this as a remembrance for the soldier of his children being left behind on the homefront. They might also place an ink handprint of the child's palm on the flag next to the name as well. As long as the prints are small, you can be reasonably sure that they came from children. Sometimes you will see large ink handprints present. In most cases, those seem to have come from the hands of Sumo wrestlers. I have been told that this was a custom of Sumo.
As a further aside, I interviewed a Japanese woman who told me that when making 1000 stitch belts, little girls would have too tough of a time making knots on the belt. As older school girls had developed the dexterity, they would be allowed to make the stitches. Because of this, smaller girls might be given the job of making the 1000 circles in which the knots would later be placed. All they had to do was use a round hanko and stamp a circle 1000 times. Another woman told me that since little girls had a tough time with the knots, they might still be allowed to brush a power character (chikara) onto a chikara belt or chikara flag if they could manage the fude. Mike