Large IJN Stitched Cotton Asahi - Rising Sun Flag

[TarquiniusSuperbus]

Hey everyone, I recently acquired this IJN Asahi flag and am looking to find out more about what sort of ship this would have been used on. The flag is 4' by 6' and is hand stitched with each sun ray being an individual piece of fabric. There are what look like kanji markings on the hoist side, but they are very faint and hard to read. I tried tracing them in green, but I am not fluent in Japanese so I could be way off the mark. If anyone can translate them I would be very appreciative, thanks!

[Nick Komiya]

The construction does not appear to be WW2. Check for postwar glow under black light. See here for what size was for what.