Question on Reading Flag Kanji

[Bill D.]

I have a flag (apparently penetrated by a bullet while being carried) that, as you can see, is covered with written kanji.

It appears that the large slogan next to the hoist edge is the "Eternal Good Fortune in Battle" declaration.

My question relates to attempting to read the kanji that surround the sun.

Should these be read (or I should say, should my attempts to read these writings) be directed towards reading them from the sun downwards?

Thanks for your help!

[Bill D.]

*

[oldflagswanted]

nice flag ...

I have a flag ...covered with written kanji.
It appears that the large slogan next to the
hoist edge is the "Eternal Good Fortune in Battle" declaration.
...

BD:
IMO a very nice flag, especially with the red stamp
& sewn on coins - something I haven't seen before.
It will be interesting to learn about the small kanji.
OFW

[Nick Komiya]

Cocentric like the sun's rays, they are supposed to be. So read from center outwards

[Nick Komiya]

Actually, that is the only correct way to sign these things because when one wants to write a slogan or poem very few people could control where the ending would come. Naturally it was not acceptable to end your sentence in the red zone, so you wrote from centre out to avoid that.

[Lea Hall]

I have a flag (apparently penetrated by a bullet while being carried)

Hi Bill:

I really like your flag. Really nice. This is a little off topic, but I don't think you are looking at a bullet defect in your flag. Rather it appears that the hole was made by something burning as the edges of the holes are burnt. I would also expect a bullet defect to be more uniform (not necessarily, but usually a small round hole). To speculate on what might have caused the hole is likely a fruitless endeavor. I think it would be better phrased as "battlefield damage." This is just my opinion and I'm just trying to give you food for thought.

Also, some of the stains on your flag appear to be bloodstains. No way to confirm that without some sort of test though.

Good luck with your translating endeavors.

Lea

[Bill D.]

Nick....
Thanks very much for the assistance! I'm very grateful.
Would all of these writings have been simply slogans, or might there be something on a flag like this that was personal to this soldier?
I'm sorry if that is an elementary question.
I've been around militaria for quite some time, but this flag is my first foray into the field of Japanese material.
I would also like to thank you for your recent thread on "soldier modifications" of equipment. Based on that thread I have ordered a copy of "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword."

Lea...
My thought that the damage was caused by a bullet was supposition.
The flag can be "folded" to some degree in which the edge damage, and the holes, line up. I presumed that a bullet, traveling faster than the speed of sound, might be hot enough to singe silk as it passed through it, particularly if it was a "tracer" round.. Again, though, this is all speculation on my part and was not my reasoning behind acquiring the flag, which was brought back by a veteran. Aside from the extensive slogans, I was interested in the fact that, as OFW noted, the flag had a shrine stamp as well as good luck coins.

Ben (OFW)....
As always, your input is appreciated.

-Bill

[Paul G]

Bill, Nice flag. Thanks for sharing with us. Be careful, as collecting these flags can become an obsession. before you know it, you may have a closet full of them! Any information on the Vet who aquired it?

PG-

[GHP]

Nick....
Thanks very much for the assistance! I'm very grateful.
Would all of these writings have been simply slogans, or might there be something on a flag like this that was personal to this soldier?...
-Bill

I'm not Nick .... but I did stay at a Holiday Inn once.

The flag was a gift to
吉岡一布君
Yoshioka Kazufu-kun
Mr. Yoshioka Kazufu

The rest of the writings all are names of well-wishers: surname followed by given name. Generally speaking [extremely generally], Japanese surnames are two-kanji; however, there are many three-kanji and some one-kanji surnames [i.e., 林 Hayashi (Groves) and 森 Mori (Forest)]. Given names are between 2-4 kanji. Names are usually written in this convention: SurnameGivenname .... with no spaces [or equal spacing] between words/names. In your flag's example, you have two people signing along the same line, one below the other:
SurnameGivenname1 <space> SurnameGivenname2


Oh .... nice flag!

Regards,
--Guy

[GHP]

... I was interested in the fact that, as OFW noted, the flag had a shrine stamp as well as good luck coins.

Bill,

If you can get a good close-up of the stamp perhaps we can decypher it.

The coins are 5-yen 五円 coins; in Japanese 五円 is pronounced "go-en". "Go-en" is also a homophone for 業因 go-en, "karma" ... "luck."

I think go-en is also associated with the phrase ご円満 "Goenman" = to get along amicably; to go around smoothly ... like the shape of the coin: circular and smooth. Hopefully Nick will correct my course if I'm straying too far.

En 円 originally means "circular"


--Guy

[Nick Komiya]

Guy, you are off course by as much as Malaysia Airlines. 5 Yen would have been too much of a fortune those days to put on a flag. They are actually 5 Sen (100 Sen=1Yen) coins. But that it had to do with a pun on words is right, just the wrong pun. The point was to go over 4 Sen, as in Japanese, 四銭を越える(Exceed 4 Sen) will sound the same as 死線を越える (to keep above the line of death) pronounced Shisen Wo Koeru. So the 5 sen coin was to keep you alive.
Nowadays with the postwar redenomination of the currency, we have Yen instead of Sen and the 5 Yen coin actually sounds the same as ご縁 or a Good Relationship/Friendship. So when you present someone a 5 Yen coin, you are supposed to say, Goen wo Kudasai, which to some may sound as "Please give me 5 Yen", but the giver actually is saying, "May there be a beautiful friendship between us, Kid" in Bogart style. Remember to tie a yarn through the hole to mark the coin that the other should keep.

[GHP]

Guy, you are off course by as much as Malaysia Airlines.

Nick, as ever: thanks for the course correction. And thanks for the "insider knowledge" that you so freely share.

--Guy

[Nick Komiya]

The coins were probably put there by Mom, as she would not have been allowed to write anything like come back home alive. The maximum you could write was to wish for his health, as he needed to be fit to fight, and in those days fit meant alive unlike the Keep Fit, Die Healthy attitude of today.

[Bill D.]

Guy...

My sincere thanks to you, and my gratitude once again as well to Nick!
I am indebted to you both!
I am going to print this thread out and keep it with the flag.
You guys are great.

Bill

[Bill D.]

The flag was a gift to
吉岡一布君
Yoshioka Kazufu-kun
Mr. Yoshioka Kazufu

The rest of the writings all are names of well-wishers: surname followed by given name.

Wow. This soldier had a LOT of well-wishing friends, it would seem!

Here is my effort at taking a photograph of the shrine stamp: