Blue with the syllables chi and ha drawn in white and gold: the emblem of Chiba is from 1909, half a century before its flag.
Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.
It is a rectangular field —the field is the cloth of the flag —with a 2:3 ratio, in a single sky blue, with the emblem of the prefecture in the centre.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
Every date in its story, at a glance.
But the emblem in the centre is much older: it was adopted on 28 December 1909
Chiba approved its flag on 29 July 1963, and it has not changed since
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Chiba is blue, with a white drawing outlined in yellow in the centre. That drawing is not a single letter: it is the two syllables of “Chiba” written in katakana and heavily stylised.
Chiba approved its flag on 29 July 1963, and it has not changed since. But the emblem in the centre is much older: it was adopted on 28 December 1909, in the Meiji era, almost half a century before it became a flag. The two syllables, “chi” and “ha”, go together in white; according to the prefecture, they represent its progress and advancement.
The flag of Chiba has been the same since 1963, although the emblem it carries was already from 1909.
Sky blue
hope and progress.
White (the syllables chi and ha)
the first and second syllables of the name “Chiba”, drawn in katakana.
Yellow border
the yellow of the nanohana, the yellow flower of the rapeseed, the flower of the prefecture.
The drawing in the centre was born on 28 December 1909, in the time of Emperor Meiji. Chiba took more than fifty years to make it a flag.
Its flower, the rapeseed or nanohana, was not decided by a law: it came out of a public survey run by the NHK chain in 1954 and was never fully officialised.
Chiba is across the bay from Tokyo, but their flags do not resemble each other: Chiba’s is blue with letters, Tokyo’s purple with a sun.
Test what you have read about the flag of Chiba.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Unknown, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
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