Japanse flag

[douglas2496]

Hi everyone, can anyone help me with what is written on this Japanese good luck flag in my collection, or any other information about it? I am new to the subject. I understand it says 'I Pray Your Military Fortunes Are Long Lasting' but can anyone read the name of the soldier? Are the other kanji all names? Someone seems to have deliberately cut a chunk out of the top left corner. Any help appreciated. Doug

[chen]

1. It is a very common wordings for this kind of Good Luck flag. Basically it means Long live Good luck.
2. Loyal to your emperor and love your country.
3. kill your selfishness and obey the rule
4. I believe this is the name of the soldier which this flag is dedicated to. I do not know how to translate into English.
All other Kanji are just names.

[Nick Komiya]

There are 5 or so common slogans and the rest are names. Chen has correctly identified that what he marked out as 4 is the name of the one given this flag.

His first name was Shigeharu, but his family name consisting of two characters has the first character in a sloppy hand that I cannot make out. The second character子, meaning child is extremely common as endings in girl's first names, and is rare to be found in family names, so normally I should be able to read the name easily, but the first character does not look like any of the roughly 40 family names that end with child, which is a handwriting problem possibly aggravated through fading.

[douglas2496]

I am very grateful for the expert assistance, thank you.

[ghp95134]

...his family name consisting of two characters has the first character in a sloppy hand that I cannot make out. The second character子, meaning child is extremely common as endings in girl's first names, and is rare to be found in family names, so normally I should be able to read the name easily, but the first character does not look like any of the roughly 40 family names that end with child, which is a handwriting problem possibly aggravated through fading.

Nick,

What about
金子
Kaneko

I see some elements in the calligraphy that map to 金.


--Guy

[douglas2496]

Here is a close up in case it helps.

[Nick Komiya]

No, I don't see the first stroke, which should be a dynamic one to the left. Anyway, I don't believe there's any sense in risking creating fiction by taking guesses when something is not clear at a glance. My policy is to deal in facts and not in guesses or speculation.