The hiragana to turned into Mount Tate on a white field: Toyama retouched in 1988 an emblem born out of a 1957 competition.
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It is a white field with a green emblem in the centre.
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In 1957 the prefecture called a public competition and the emblem came out of it: Mount Tate with…
On 27 December 1988 the drawing was retouched
White: the ground since 1989
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Toyama shows on a white ground a green drawing that hides a trick: the stroke is at once the hiragana と (to), the first syllable of the name, and the profile of Mount Tate, the great mountain of the area.
In 1957 the prefecture called a public competition and the emblem came out of it: Mount Tate with the syllable と in the centre, an image of a prefecture moving towards the sky. It was approved on 14 December 1957. The flag never had a rule of its own: for decades a green field with the golden emblem was hung by custom. On 27 December 1988 the drawing was retouched, the inside of the と going from rounded to pointed, and from 1 January 1989 the current flag has been used, with the green emblem on white.
There has been only one version before the current one.
1957-1988
The first version, used by custom: a green field with the golden emblem and the と in rounded forms.
1989
With the emblem retouched in 1988, the flag debuted a white ground and a pointed stroke.
Green
the official colour of the prefecture; its abundant nature and its appetite for the future (official interpretation).
と
the first syllable of Toyama, placed over Mount Tate: the prefecture moving towards the sky.
White
the ground since 1989. I have not found an official explanation for this colour.
Toyama has never issued a rule regulating its flag: the field has been used purely by custom since 1957, and that is why for years it was green and gold.
The 1988 reform only sharpened the silhouette of the と; the drawing conceived in the 1957 competition is still the same one.
Test what you have read about the flag of Toyama.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Guilherme Paula and Maanshen, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
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