Portland Flag Association Publication 1 Portland Flag Association “Free, and Worth Every Penny!” Issue 31 December 2011 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: A Flag for All Mankind in the 21st Century A Flag for All Mankind 1 By David W. Ferriday Japanese Battle Standards 2 November 2011 Flutterings 4 There are thousands of Remembering John Hood 5 flags representing many Flags in the News 5 different groups of people New Wave: Facts About Flags 6 around the world. The The Flag Quiz 7 United Nations flag and The Seal of the State of Jefferson 8 the Olympic flag are the Next Meeting Announcement 8 most inclusive. But there is, I believe, a need for a www.portlandflag.org flag that represents each and understanding of some of this every one of us, as a member of extremely complex set of factors the human species, and so I have with a flag. designed a flag with that in mind. The specific design is representa- People are divided by race, tive of earth, air, fire, and water religion, nationality, and many (elements found in many historic, other factors large or small. religious, and early scientific Recent developments in science, contexts), as well as the sun—the and concerns for the ecological ultimate source of power for our stability of our planet, have world. brought some people together and pushed others apart. We The colors express these: need to be reminded of our com- earth—black, air—white, mon humanity and our home. fire—red, water—blue, and the sun—yellow. In addition to the Flags appear regularly in the news extremes of black and white are as emblems of our various inter- added the three primary colors. ests and alliances, and are surely a The human race is a race very important means of commu- The particular graphic way in of cowards, and I am not nication and representation. This which I have brought these together in the form a flag are only marching in that is one reason why I have chosen simply my own sense of design. procession but I am to express my feelings and my carrying a banner. If you wish to compliment the interim editor, or to contribute in the future, contact Ted —Mark Twain Kaye at 503-223-4660 or [email protected]. If you wish to complain, call your mother. 2 Portland Flag Association Publication Japanese Battle Standards: Military Communication of Feudal Japan Submitted by Patrick Genna from samurai used their own names or and thus one of the most honor- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ mon rather than that of their lord, able, positions on the field of bat- while other factions, such as the tle. A variety of methods were used Ikkō-ikki, could be identified by to communicate across the bat- banners declaring namu amida Sashimono were small rectangular tlefield in feudal Japan, much like butsu, praising the name of the banners worn on the backs of in any other culture. These Amida Buddha. ashigaru, or common soldiers. methods included visual signals They typically featured the mon of like flags and banners and audi- By the mid-16th century, flags their daimyo or clan, and used col- ble signals using drums and and banners were seen in greater ors to denote units or divisions. horns. Messengers on horseback numbers than ever before, and in used ciphers and other methods an unprecedented variety of to prevent their messages from styles, sizes, shapes and colors. falling into the wrong hands. Where once only higher-ranking By the beginning of the Sengoku samurai and commanders had Period, battlefield communica- standards (flags), now lower- tions had become fairly compli- ranking warriors wore flags to cated affairs, with larger armies denote their unit or division, than ever before, and a multitude along with their clan or lord. of flags and banners covered in a Not only were armies larger than myriad of colors and designs. in the past, but the number of Since the beginnings of what we clans present on any given side in would today recognize as Japa- a battle had increased as well. In nese culture, and probably earlier, any one battle, a single daimyo various symbols, crests, banners, could have under him several or markings on armor were used other daimyo, each with a number of to help identify and distinguish units or divisions, and sub- warriors on the battlefield. commanders, as well as individual samurai of such a reputation (or wealth) as to warrant their own individual banner. Sashimono. This profusion of banners meant that the commanders, especially the daimyo at the head of each side Uma-jirushi (馬印, lit. horse stan- of the battle, had to have espe- dard) were the massive, often three- cially large and noticeable stan- dimensional, banners used to dis- dards to identify their location; tinguish the daimyo or other top warriors needed to know where The mon, or symbol, of a clan or commanders on the battlefield. to rally around, whose orders to a daimyo (above) was particularly While this did wonders for the follow, and what those orders common, identifying which side organization and morale of the were. The role of standard bearer a warrior fought on; some daimyo's troops, it also attracted was one of the most dangerous, the attention of the enemy. Portland Flag Association Publication 3 The horo (母衣)(below) were large pieces of cloth, not entirely unlike a cape or cloak, which would be worn on the back, sup- ported and shaped by a series of bamboo or wooden sticks. In addition to displaying an identify- ing mon or symbol, and making A variety of Uma-Jirushi designs, taken from the 15th century book O Uma Jirushi. For other pages from this book see the collection of Japanese heraldry the samurai appear larger-than- at http://commons.wikimedia.org. life, it served the purpose of arrow entangler. Ultimately, it marked that warrior as someone On the scroll above are depicted important, usually a messenger or uma-jirushi—battle standards set scout, and worthy of honorable up beside a military commander's treatment, even by his enemies. horse to show his position—of 170 soldiers. The illustrations are printed in color and also painted by hand. This scroll is important for marking the origin of multi- color woodblock printing (nishiki- e) in Japan. The sixth volume of this work, which was found only recently, is the only scroll still known to exist. It was created 1624-1644; its Japanese title is 御馬印. Hata-jirushi were one of the older types of standards; they were long streaming banners attached to a Horo. crosspiece and held up on a long A daimyo would often signal with bamboo or wooden rod. his war fan (gunbai or gunpai) as Nobori (幟, lit. flag, banner ) (right) well. While these fans were much are perhaps the best-known of larger than the usual paper or silk feudal Japanese military flags. ones, it seems unlikely that orders Introduced somewhat later than could be conveyed to thousands the hata-jirushi, a nobori was a stiff- or tens of thousands of warriors ened piece of cloth, attached to in this way. a pole through loops, and includ- Saihai were signal batons used by ing, of course, a mon or other samurai commanders, these were identifying mark on it, to repre- small hand-held staffs with strips sent the samurai or daimyo who of leather, lacquered paper, or a carried it. streamer of animal hair on one Nobori. end. 4 Portland Flag Association Publication November 2011 Flutterings You Need to Know In our November meeting, hosted blazon to a graphic representation thanking Max and complimenting generously by Mike Hale, we cov- of the heraldic achievement? him for his able help in develop- ered a lot of territory (a flag lot?). ing it. See page 6 for the correct Max Liberman showed the suite image and description. Scott Mainwaring passed around a of flags that he’d created for his Chinese car-flag attachment he’d own country, the Kingdom of David Ferriday shared more recently picked up on eBay, and Æfira, and presented as a Vexibit about his flag for all humanity— read excerpts from a new book, at the 24th International Congress with primary colors plus black & Christ to Coke, which has a section of Vexillology. white representing earth-air-fire- on the American flag. water and the sun (see page 1). Mike Hale has sold Elmer’s Flag He also showed designs he’d cre- Michael Orelove introduced what & Banner. He briefed us on the ated to commemorate the 7 bil- the U.S. flag would now look like new owner, and showed some of lionth person on the planet, and had the Third flag Act of 1820 not the cotton flags he’s collected, the 8th and 9th billions (below). returned the stripe count to 13: including many U.S. historical a 50-star, 50-stripe flag (below). flags and a few others, including (Continued on page 5) We speculated that the field would the “Jantzen Diving Girl”. look pink from a distance, a form of “American Pink Ensign”, and Ken Dale, in recognition of the wondered how many other flags even of Veteran’s Day 11-11-11, had pink fields. told of his military service and what the holiday meant to him. David Koski brought up a fasci- nating idea—could software be Patrick Genna talked about the developed to translate a heraldic latest version of his personal flag, David Ferriday’s flag for the 7 billion people on the planet (with back- ground representing land and water), and his anticipatory designs for the 8 billion and 9 billion (by the last flag Michael Orelove and his 50-Star, 50-Stripe American Flag the planet will be nearly finished).