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Flag of Gifu

The green kanji 岐 inside a circle on a white field: Gifu still flies an emblem that predates the war, from 1932.

Flag of Gifu
Coat of arms
Learn to read it Test yourself

The flag, in figures

Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.

Proportions
2:33 wide for every 2 high. 989 flags in the catalogue share it.
Properties
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
Use
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.
Adopted
193210 August 1932 · 94 years ago
Colours
  • white
  • green
Reference shades: the official one may vary slightly.
Coat of arms
YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.

Take a closer look

  • Field

  • Emblem

  • Charge

  • Position

How it is described

The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.

Vexillological description

It is a rectangular field with a 2:3 ratio, white, with the emblem of the prefecture in green and centred. The flag carries no coat of arms: only the colour of the cloth and a figure on top.

Field
a 2:3 rectangle, plain (a single colour, no divisions).
Emblem
a green disc in the centre, drawn with a single character of the name.
Charge
in vexillology, what is drawn on the field; here it is a single figure.
Position
the disc sits equally far from the flagpole (the pole) and from the fly side (the free edge).

What it carries

Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.

The full story

How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.

A green 岐 surrounded by a circle on a white ground: the flag of Gifu boasts its age, because its emblem is older than the law that defined the national flag of Japan.

How it came about

The emblem came out of a public competition held in 1932, with a surprise: the first proposal was not chosen but the second, reworked by the prefecture before approving it on 10 August of that year. Inside, the abbreviation of the first kanji of Gifu officially symbolises peace and harmony. There is no flag regulation at all: since then the white field with the green drawing is hung by custom, and the green was chosen for “the beauty of the nature of the prefecture”.

How it has changed

The flag has not changed since 1932, although in 1991 the prefecture gave itself a new symbol —a coloured letter G— which is seen above all on road signs, but it flies on no flag.

What it means

  • 岐 (green)

    abbreviation of the first kanji of Gifu, enclosed in a circle: peace and harmony (official interpretation).

  • Green

    the beauty of the nature of the prefecture (official explanation).

  • White

    the ground of the field; it has no documented official meaning.

Fun facts

  1. An emblem from before the war

    Gifu is one of six prefectures still using an emblem created before the Second World War; the oldest, that of Oita, dates from 1911.

  2. A second prize that came out the winner

    The current drawing comes from a design that came second in the 1932 competition and that the prefecture perfected before adopting it.

  3. The G of the roads

    The 1991 symbol mark draws a G that grows “from dots to lines and from lines to surfaces”, an image of an expanding prefecture; the official flag, however, still shows the 1932 emblem.

Localisation

How much have you learnt?

Test what you have read about the flag of Gifu.

  1. 1. Which one is the flag of Gifu?

  2. 2. Which of these elements appears on the flag?

  3. 3. What are the proportions (height:width) of the flag?

  4. 4. In which year was the current flag adopted?

Sources

Sources consulted:

Credits

Flag image: Fvasconcellos (talk · contribs). PNG version by Kzaral, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.

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