2008年5月2日金曜日

The Rising Sun Flag




I found a national flag of Japan when I was walking around near my town on April 29 which is national holiday. There are still some people who display the Rising Sun in front of their houses on national holidays.

At first, let’s think about when and why the custom of displaying Japanese flags started. Here is the description about Rising Sun Flag written on an elementary school textbook published in 1936.


“There used to be few houses where the Rising Sun Flags were displayed on national holidays. However, about ten years ago, people of whole town had an argument about the national flag and they decided to display the flags at every house.” (translation of mine)

As you can see from the description and the publication year, the custom fixed after the Russo-Japanese War. Before the war (until the end of Edo period), Japanese flags were not familiarized to people’s daily life. However, after the war, a Boshin syousyo (戊申詔書) which was issued by the name of the Emperor in an attempt to build a political and educational system with loyalty and patriotism. The custom of displaying Japanese flags on some special day was established as one of the ways to materialize this issue. Japanese flag was displayed not only on national holidays but also on the day of the Imperial House’s events, return in triumph of soldiers and public office’s celebrations.
At that time, the Rising Sun Flag was a symbol of loyalty and patriotism.

(Information from 歴史教育者協議会編「日の丸・君が代50問50答」大月書店 1999)

However, there are now few Rising Sun Flags displayed at people’s house. My mother said that although there used to be a lot of the Rising Sun Flags displayed in front of people’s houses on national holidays, they are seldom found in recent years. My national holiday, but he also said that he gradually stopped doing that after the war.



This chart might be helpful to know how many people still display the flag on national holidays.

Rising Sun Flag often reminds people of wartime and militarism, so quite a few people strongly resist displaying the flags. It is the same thing as refusing to stand for Kimigayo (君が代).
My father said that he comes up with the image of the right wing (右翼: uyoku) when he sees the flag. The cars of uyoku which are displaying Rising Sun Flag are sometimes found on streets. They go around by car, appealing the come back of the Emperor system. They are often playing Kimigayo in a loud volulme.

I have never experienced wartime and I have been grown up in the age of democracy when the individualism is emphasized, not nationalism. So, I don’t have any special image or thoughts about Rising Sun Flag. It reminds me of just sports events or Hinomaru bento (日の丸弁当). The image of Japanese flag is varied from generation to generation.


2 件のコメント:

visual gonthros さんのコメント...

An interesting topic that is related to the film we recently saw in class. I like your conclusion in that it relates to your last post - clever.

Aren't you missing an original photo? Can you explain the chart rather than just have a link to it?

David さんのコメント...

The modern Japanese flag is different than the wartime flag (without the "rays" emanating for the sun.) The version you have shown is the modern version adopted after the war mainly to remove the association with WW2.