Yosegaki Himomaru? Hinomaru Yosegaki? No, it's Hinomaru no Yosegaki!

[Stu W]

Hi Folks,

A recent learning experience (for me) prompted this thread. I expressed the sentiment that a signed flag was not, in my view, a true Yosegaki Hinomaru/Hinomaru Yosegaki. This was based on my belief that the term was best used to describe flags signed by well wishers rather than for commemorative purposes etc. A member over on WAF, Nick Komiya, corrected me, or perhaps enlightened me, to the broader true meaning and usage of the term. I'll quote his comments below and they will give you an idea of what I learnt and perhaps it will be of value to some of you as well.

Regards,
Stu


"If you and 2 other people sign a card of good cheer together for a friend in hospital, that is a perfect Yosegaki. Happy Birthday cards in the office are normally all Yosegaki, too, as it merely means "write one after another close together". Hinomaru literally means "The sun orb" and is the name of the national flag of Japan. So the flags with signatures are Hinomaru Yosegaki, not Yosegaki Hinomaru. That is because adjectives come before the noun and Hinomaru serves like an adjective. Actually the correct Japanese is Hinomaru no Yosegaki, which makes the adjective role clear in grammar."

[Nick Komiya]

I notice the recent trend of calling signed Japanese national flags "Yosegaki Hinomaru", but that is not correct Japanese, so let's bring this old thread up to the top again.

When you say "Yosegaki Hinomaru", you are actually saying that inscriptions (Yosegaki) are collectively forming a red sun orb (Hinomaru), a meatball consisting of inscriptions. So a grammar-conscious Japanese will imagine tiny inscriptions written in red ink, packed closely together in concentric fashion, which seen from a distance will look like the meatball flag.

In Japanese, when two nouns are strung together, in most cases, the first noun is describing the second noun, working as an adjective. For instance, if you want to describe clear skies, that is described in Japanese as Blue (青 or 晴) Heavens (天). Both are nouns but Blue is describing the Heavens. You see now that by reversing this word order, like you did with Yosegaki Hinomaru, you are now describing what kind of blue it is instead. Come to think of it, it works the same in English, the difference between "Blue Skies" and "Sky Blue" is what you guys got wrong. Yes, it's actually more wrong than it sounds.

"Yosegaki" is basically synonymous with "card", and there are Birthday Cards and Christmas Cards. "Yosegaki Hinomaru" is incorrect language as "Card Birthday" or "Card Christmas". Get it now?

Just remember not to get too carried away when you see Kanjis for Man and Woman or Parent and Child strung together. They don't mean masculine women or Adult-like children. Those are simple cases of "And" being omitted.

[Bobby]

Hello Nick. I belong to a Facebook group specifically about Hinomaru no Yosegaki and Senninbari. However, the group is using the name "yosegaki Hinomaru". May I use your comments to inform the group about the grammatically correct phrase that should be used instead ? Thank you.

[Nick Komiya]

As you please, but then you need to quote my explanation in whole about "Blue Sky" and "Sky Blue", not only the conclusion.

To give you some more coaching, the point about "Hinomaru no Yosegaki" stresses what kind of Yosegaki it is, that it is in flag form, as 99% of Yosegaki is done on special cardboard called shikishi (Shikishi no Yosegaki) and doing it on flags or T shirts is an exception.

If you want to reverse the word order, that is also possible, but you have to make the first word a verb in passive form by saying Yosegaki-sareta Hinomaru (Hinomaru flag with Yosegaki added) or Yosegaki no aru Hinomaru (Hinomaru with Yosegaki present).

Shown below is a traditional Yosegaki done on a Shikishi.

[Bobby]

Thank you. I have not come across Shikishi no Yosegaki, at least as a militaria item. Would I not expect to find them as they were not carried by soldiers or did not survive World War II? Or are they post war items and more like a modern greeting card?