Flag of Ehime

The flag of Ehime breaks the rule of Japan. Almost all prefectural flags are a single ground colour with an emblem on top; Ehime is the only one with a two-colour ground: three horizontal stripes, yellow, green and yellow, with a white flower shifted slightly off centre.

How it came about

The design came out of a public competition of ideas and was adopted on 5 May 1952, in the middle of the post-war reconstruction. The flower is the orange blossom, that of the mikan orange tree, the prefectural flower: Ehime is the great orange land of Japan. And it does not resemble the coat of arms, something very rare among the 47 prefectures.

How it has changed

The flag of 1952 is the one in force, but between 1989 and 1999 it shared the mast with another.

1. 1952-1989

   The field of three stripes with the orange blossom is the only flag of the prefecture for almost four decades.

2. 

   1989-1999

   In 1989 the prefecture debuted a new emblem and a white flag to promote it, which was raised alongside the one of 1952. The red of the drawing evoked the sun and the orange, the green Mount Ishizuchi and the blue the Seto inland sea.

3. 

   1999

   In 1999 the white flag was withdrawn for having done its job, and the 1952 striped flag was left alone again.

What it means

• White orange blossom

  that of the mikan orange tree, the prefectural flower; its petals mean simplicity and purity, according to the reading spread by the prefecture.

• Green

  peace and hope.

• Yellow

  happiness.

Fun facts

1. The only two-colour flag

   The Spanish Wikipedia on the national flag says so, citing the prefectural website: of the 47 prefectures, only Ehime has more than one ground colour. The rest are a plain field with the emblem.

2. The emblem that won and lost an election

   The white flag of 1989 was the work of a new governor who fought with his predecessor, the creator of the earlier emblem. The governor lost the 1999 election and his successor withdrew the white flag that same May.

3. A zombie symbol

   The 1989 emblem is technically still in force, but almost nobody uses it: the official Ehime website and the governors’ association only show the striped flag.

Location