A white plum blossom on light blue, drawn with the syllables “fu” and “ku”: the flag of Fukuoka, of 1966, is used by custom, without an ordinance.
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 with a 7:10 ratio in light blue, with the emblem of the prefecture in white and centred. It is raised from the flagpole, the pole the flag goes up on.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
A white plum blossom cut out on light blue: the flag of Fukuoka is simple, but it hides a play on words, because its emblem was drawn with two syllables of the name of the prefecture. Fukuoka, in the north of the island of Kyushu, is one of the most populated regions of Japan.
On 10 May 1966 the prefecture approved its emblem by official notice, designed from entries in a public competition. The drawing turns into a plum blossom —the flower of Fukuoka —the syllables «ふ» (fu) and «く» (ku), the first two sounds of its name.
No law defined the flag: it is a custom. From 16 September of that same year, as part of a campaign to spread the emblem, the prefectural government building flew a light blue field with the white plum blossom in the centre, and from then on that field has been used as the unofficial flag of the prefecture.
The flag has not changed since 1966; it only has colour variants for specific occasions: at the national sports championships, the prefecture’s team flies the same flower, but red on a white ground.
The only symbol on the flag is its emblem:
Emblem
a plum drawn with the syllables «ふ» and «く». According to the prefecture, it expresses peace, the development of the territory and the harmony and progress of its inhabitants.
White
the colour of the emblem, cut out against the ground.
Light blue
the ground; the prefecture has never assigned it a documented official meaning.
In Fukuoka the official notice only approves the emblem: the flag exists by custom, and it is used as official in the same prefectural buildings that saw it born
The prefecture also uses a road-safety flag, adopted in 1962: seven green and white stripes with a yellow cross in the centre
The Fukuoka sports association uses a symbol from 1951 that combines the shape of the yen sign and the letter F; its three colours represent the three historic districts of the prefecture
Test what you have read about the flag of Fukuoka.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Guilherme Paula, Mike Rohsopht, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
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