The kanji oka draws a golden circle on aubergine purple: the flag of Okayama came out of a public competition of ideas in 1967.
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 very dark purple and plain, with a single golden circle in the centre of the field.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
Every date in its story, at a glance.
What did change was the earlier coat of arms: from 1919 Okayama used an oka in the shape of a bell
The design was chosen by public competition in 1967
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Okayama is a very dark purple, aubergine in colour, with a golden circle in the centre. The circle is the kanji oka (岡), the first part of the name of the prefecture, bent until it closes into a circle. Almost no standard in the world uses purple: Japanese prefectural flags do.
The design was chosen by public competition in 1967, on the twentieth anniversary of the law that organised Japanese local autonomy. The winning entry was by Kaiyu Ban, a designer from the city of Okayama, and emblem and flag were approved on 22 November 1967 by prefectural notification number 883.
The flag has not changed since 1967. What did change was the earlier coat of arms: from 1919 Okayama used an oka in the shape of a bell, replaced already in 1956 by a staff badge. In the simplified version the emblem can be in white, and the name can be written below.
Golden oka
closed into a circle, it represents the union of the inhabitants and the development and leap forward of the prefecture, according to the official reading.
Aubergine purple
the notification fixes the nasu-kon, the almost black purple of the aubergine.
Governor Miki Yukiharu, elected after the war, summed up the 1919 emblem by saying it looked like a fainted pig. The phrase spread and the bell-shaped design lost all support until the 1967 competition.
The prefecture itself warns that the flag of Okayama is often described by mistake with a navy blue or brown ground instead of the official aubergine purple.
Test what you have read about the flag of Okayama.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Kzaral, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
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