Three white peaks that draw the kanji for mountain and the river Mogami on a blue ground: Yamagata changed the colour of its flag in 1971.
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 light blue rectangular field with a 2:3 ratio, with a centred white emblem: three peaks joined at the base, like a silhouette of a mountain.
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.
Yamagata made its flag official on 26 March 1963
On 16 April 1971 the prefecture replaced it with the current light blue
Curiously, the prefectural emblem came later: it was approved on 21 August 1976
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Yamagata has three white peaks in the centre of a light blue field. It is the Japanese prefecture of snow and cherries, mountainous and landlocked, and its drawing is at once a word and a map.
Yamagata made its flag official on 26 March 1963, by prefectural notification number 267. The three white peaks are not just decoration: together they form the kanji 山 (mountain), one of the two syllables of the name Yamagata, and at the same time they represent the river Mogami, the great river that crosses the prefecture from south to north. Curiously, the prefectural emblem came later: it was approved on 21 August 1976, copying the flag design unchanged.
The shape has not been touched since 1963. The colour, on the other hand, changed once. The original ground was a very dark blue-green, chosen as the opposite colour to the red disc of the Hinomaru, because the two flags often flew together. On 16 April 1971 the prefecture replaced it with the current light blue.
1963-1971
The first flag of Yamagata: the same drawing as the current one, but with a dark greenish blue ground chosen to contrast well with the red of the national flag.
1971
The design is still that of 1963; only the ground changed to light blue by the notification of 16 April 1971.
It is the reading given by the prefecture itself:
Three white peaks
the kanji for mountain and the river Mogami.
Sharp angles
the development of the prefecture.
Cut white
the snow —like the frozen forests of Mount Zao— and the simple, honest character of the locals.
Light blue ground
the colour fixed in 1971, brighter than the original.
Normally the arms come first and then the flag that carries them; in Yamagata it was the other way round: the flag is from 1963 and the emblem copied it thirteen years later.
The original colour was not thought of alone but in pairs: the dark blue-green was chosen because it was the tone that contrasted best with the red sun of the Hinomaru when the two flags flew together.
Test what you have read about the flag of Yamagata.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Zscout370, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
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