A white circle hiding the characters of the old land of Tosa on maroon cloth: Kōchi chose its emblem in 1953 through a national tournament.
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 2:3 ratio in wine colour, with a white circle in the centre.
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.
The flag of Kōchi is a dark maroon, the colour of red wine, with a white circle crossed by a sword tip. Inside that drawing three Japanese characters hide: the kanji to (土), the hiragana tosa and the katakana ko (コ), which is how this land is and was called.
The emblem was chosen through a public competition of ideas on the occasion of the eighth National Sports Festival, held in 1953 on the island of Shikoku. The prefecture approved it on 15 April 1953. There was never a notification regulating the flag: the wine-coloured field with the emblem in white is simple custom, as in the neighbouring Tokushima.
The emblem has not changed since 1953. Only in the first years was a provisional version seen, with the emblem at the top left and the name of Kōchi large at the bottom right, which later disappeared.
Three names in one
the kanji of the old land of Tosa, its reading in hiragana syllables and the ko of the current name, Kōchi, fitted into a circle.
Circle
peace and cooperation between the inhabitants.
Vertical sword tip
continuous improvement, the will to progress; it is the interpretation collected in the official repertoires of prefectural symbols.
At the National Sports Festival, each prefectural delegation enters the stadium carrying its flag. Kōchi launched its own precisely in order to host that festival in 1953.
Besides the clean flag, there also exists and is used a version that adds the name of the prefecture in kanji under the emblem. Both are on Wikimedia Commons.
Test what you have read about the flag of Kōchi.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Kochi prefecture administration Vectorized by Mike Rohsopht, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
