Flag feedback

[Idaz]

Hi!

I have two interesting flag that I have questions on.



The first flag is a giant silk flag standing at roughly 52x36 inches, besides being larger then average the main thing that sticks out is the red ink used to write on the flag.
My understanding was the writing in red ink was consider bad luck. I looked for another example of a flag written in red ink, but no such luck.



The second flag is also a silk flag that slightly larger then average. The big thing on this one is on the slogan on top, you can tell it was written by pen at first and then brushed over. I am curious if that something that would be done? My gut feeling says no.

[Nick Komiya]

Both flags are highly irregular in respect to the features you point out, but both look authentic nonetheless. As I frequently point out, writing within the orb was and still is considered sacrilegious and bad luck, but it was occasionally done.

Likewise, writing people's names in red was also regarded as a big no-no, but there are always those that defy social taboos to make people gasp.

Vermillion ink has traditionally been used by teachers of calligraphy to correct a student's work, and test scores were also typically written onto the test sheet and returned to the child by the teacher in that manner. Considering that the vermillion writing was done by employees at the Industrial Textile Testing Lab of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, they must have been used to giving verdicts written in red. That ministry only existed between 1st Nov. 1943 and 26th August 1945, so that dates it as late war.

[Nick Komiya]

Why do the Japanese regard writing people's names in vermillion as taboo? Here's a listing of how outrageous it was to do so.

1. Simply regarded as bad luck

2. In letters challenging someone to a duel or of ostracization, those named were indicated in vermillion, suggesting contempt toward the named.

3. There is the superstition that your life will get curtailed if your name got written in vermillion.

4. In Japan, there is a practice of coloring chiseled in names on gravestones in vermillion in certain cases and this association with graveyard use turn people off.

5. Names of criminals used to be written in vermillion.

[Idaz]

Thank you for the information, other then shock value it feels that there would have been no benefit to writing on the flag with vermillion ink.

[Nick Komiya]

One can only assume that vermillion writing had a positive meaning within that particular organization, but in what way, only the writers would know, keeping us excluded from the insider's joke.