Kanji quiz time! Can you identify the characters behind Japan’s creative municipal flags?

Japan’s national flag may be well-known for its simplicity—after all it’s just a big red circle in the middle of a field of white—but did you know that’s not Japan’s only flag? Every single prefecture, city, town and village has its own special flag to represent its history or what it’s famous for.

Even more commonly, many of the municipalities’ flags have stylized versions of the kanji found in their names. And when we say stylized, we mean highly stylized. We have here a selection of some of Japan’s kanji-flags, so you can see the creativity that went into each of them.

If you think you’re a kanji master, then get ready to test your skills and see how many you can guess correctly!

The blog Design Made in Japan recently put up a post showing off a lot of different flags found all over Japan. We have here a sampling of some of the kanji-based ones, in order from pretty easy to guess to pretty much impossible.

If you know some kanji then feel free to try to guess what the flags are based off before you scroll down, but otherwise just enjoy the cleverness that went into some of these designs.

We’ll start off with some easy ones, just to warm up.

▼ Here’s the flag for Shinagawa, Tokyo. What kanji is stylized here?

▼ Answer: This is the 品 (shina, “goods”) in 品川 (Shinagawa). Pretty tricky stringing all those boxes together.

▼ Next up, the flag for Akita City. What kanji could this be based on?

▼ Answer: This is the 田 (ta, “rice field”) in 秋田 (Akita). Seems as though they rounded the edges a bit.

▼ Here’s the flag for Fukyama City in Hiroshima. What kanji do you think this is?

▼ Answer: This is the 山 (yama, “mountain”) in 福山 (Fukuyama). Apparently it looks like a bat due to Fukuyama Castle’s location on what is known as Bat Mountain. And it does bear a striking resemblance to the Batman symbol too….

▼ How about this flag for Tama City in Tokyo? What kanji is this?

▼ Answer: This is the 多 (ta, “many”) in 多摩 (Tama). Kind of looks like a pigeon flying away, which is pretty fitting for a city.

▼ Next up is this nice one from Kanazawa City in Ishikawa Prefecture. This one might look hard, but it’s not too difficult to guess.

▼ Answer: This is the 金 (kana, “gold”) in 金沢 (Kanazawa). Kind of looks like a crab to me, but to each their own.

▼ Now this is where things start to get a little weird. Can you guess the kanji for Beppu City in Oita Prefecture?

▼ Answer: This is the 別 (be, “separate”) in 別府 (Beppu). Things are starting to get a little too curvy for my brain to read.

▼ How about this oddly symmetrical kanji for Kitami City in Hokkaido?

▼ Answer: This is the 北 (kita, “north”) in 北見 (Kitami). I have a feeling I’d get points knocked off my kanji test if I wrote it like that.

▼ And now we get into crazy mode. What kanji is on the flag here for Ome City in Tokyo?

▼ Answer: This is the 青 (o, “blue”) in 青梅 (Ome). I mean, I can kind of see it. I think….

▼ How about the flag for Shibuya in Tokyo? Can you figure out the kanji here?

▼ Answer: This is the 渋 (shibu, “elegant”) in 渋谷 (Shibuya). Yeah, sure, if you say so!

▼ Is… is that even real? What the heck is going on here with the flag for Azumino City in Nagano?

▼ Answer: This is the 安 (a, “safe”) in 安曇野 (Azumino). I… I don’t even know what to think anymore.

▼ Good luck on this one! Try to guess the kanji for Kasuga City in Fukuoka.

▼ Answer: This is the 春 (kasu, “spring”) in 春日 (Kasuga). There was a time when I thought I knew how to read kanji….

▼ And the final boss: the flag for Ibaraki City in Osaka. I’ll give you a hint: it’s not the kanji for “bird.”

▼ Answer: This is the 茨 (iba, “thorn bush”) in 茨城 (Ibaraki). Oh… yeah. I can totally see it now.

So how many did you get right? If you got even one, give yourself a pat on the back you kanji-master, you.

If you want to see even more Japanese flags and the reasoning behind them, check out the post on the Design Made in Japan blog. If you’re looking for designs that are beautiful, creative, and sometimes downright insane, then you won’t be disappointed.

Source: Design Made in Japan
Images: Design Made in Japan (Edited by RocketNews24)

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