A wine-coloured circle with a ナ inside on white: the flag of Nara encrypts its message in harmony, the motto of Prince Shōtoku.
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, white and plain, with a single emblem in the centre: a wine-coloured disc from which a bar protrudes on the right.
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 Nara is white with a single figure in the centre: a wine-coloured circle hiding a katakana ナ (na), the initial syllable of the name. A roundel, a letter and a message about harmony.
The flag and the emblem were approved together, on 1 March 1968. The drawing tells a story in shapes, according to the official reading: the outer circle is the generous nature of the old territory of Yamato —the “mahoroba”, the ideal land of the poems—, the inner circle expresses harmony, and the horizontal stroke, a ceaseless progress. Harmony uses very old words: those of the first article of the constitution of the Seventeen-Article Constitution of Prince Shōtoku, from the seventh century.
It has not changed: the flag of 1968 is identical to the current one.
Outer circle
the rich nature of Yamato, the old “mahoroba” (official explanation).
Inner circle
harmony, with the motto of Prince Shōtoku as reference (official explanation).
Horizontal stroke
the constant progress of the prefecture (official explanation).
Wine colour
the rule fixed it without explaining it: the noble shade is only a popular reading.
The “harmony” of the emblem comes from the first phrase of the Seventeen-Article Constitution, written at the beginning of the seventh century by Prince Shōtoku.
Between 710 and 784, Nara —then called Heijō-kyō— was the capital of the country: the first time Japan had a fixed capital.
The 1968 rule defines the shapes of the emblem and its colour, but not why that wine shade: it is the only detail with no documented meaning.
Test what you have read about the flag of Nara.
Flag image: Original: PRiMENON Vector: Wrightbus, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
