Daimyo flags, 15th - 17th century (Japan)

During 1467-1614 there were lots of wars for state's unification among Daimyos who ruled in Kuni (state) . Japan was composed of 68 Kunis in those times and the names are totally different from current name of Japanese prefectures.
The daimyos divided into two groups: West Japan and East Japan. At both battles, the West was defeated by the East led by Tokugawa Ieyasu who became Shogun for the victory and his Tokugawa family ruled Japan without serious civil war till 1868 when Meiji Emperor restored political power from Shogun. In the Tokugawa era about 250 years daimyo flags were not often used and developed due to lack of chance (little war). Images of some flags Tokugawa era are rectangle flags with simpler design than flags in warring period (1467-1614).
The daimyo flags were mainly used as banner at war and basically father/sons/brothers even in a same family used different flags. This is why we will see so many Daimyo flags.
The three most famous daimyo are:
Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) the prime mover of Japan's 16th century reunification after a hundred years of strife.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) the warlord and he could for the first time truly claim that he had extended his regime nationwide into which provincial lords were integrated.
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) the Shogun warrior chieftain who outwitting many of his major contemporaries and outliving and out-procreating the rest, survived Japan's late 16th century wars of unification with victories at the battles of Sekigahara (1600) and Osaka (1614).
The Daimyos tried to march in to old capital Kyoto where the Emperor lived.
The Daimyo flags particularly during warring period were used in one Kuni and also more than one Kunis from time to time. The daimyo fought against each other starting with fight with neighbor to rule the next Kuni. If he succeeded he expanded his territory (Kuni).
This is just like World Cup, the grand champion being a Shogun who controls whole Japan as the best player (Daimyo of Daimyos).
The vertical flag called Nobori-hata is, I believe, War Flag in English which belongs to an organization always placed in the center of camp in battle field and the square flag called Uma-jirushi is a kind of rank flag which is a General 's flag at war, basically personal flag.
Uma means horse; jirushi is sign or mark. There were no other rank flags basically.
The Japanese mon is too complicated to distinguish it from other mons if they were used in a flag at war. In order to tell who is an enemy and an ally at war the simple flag was required. Japanese warriors did not have shield to protect themselves like European knights. That's why they used much more flags at war for identity.
The size of vertical flag is around 4m x 0.7m and square one 2m x 2m.
The Daimyo flag is believed to have the God of War live in them, thus flags had been placed in a valuable box and stored in a special room of the Daimyo in other circumstances.
In the castle, flags were not used but each samurai on duty wore ceremonial kimono called Kamishimo which has mon to identify his family in usually three places.
The kuni was not stable politically but physically geographically stable for long time. The number and the size of kunis 68 remained unchanged and lots of Daimyo had come and gone thru the kuni during warring period.
Some Daimyo ruled 2-3 kunis and on the other hands some kuni was ruled by 2-3 Daimyos from time to time.
Nozomi Kariyasu, June and July 2000

by Nozomi Kariyasu, 10 February 2023

In the period of warring factions, from the Onin War of 1467 to the Tensho War of 1573, when the Muromachi shogunate was overthrown by Oda Nobunaga, and then to the Genna War of 1615, when Tokugawa Ieyasu established the shogunate and overthrew the Toyotomi family that succeeded Nobunaga, many warlords appeared and many military flags were made. In this period, the fighting style changed from single combat to group warfare, and various flags were used to identify friend and foe, as well as to show one's whereabouts and war merits. “Hatajirushi"旗印 was a long, vertical war banner that was erected at the main camp as a flag for the troops, and was also called "Jinbata" 陣旗(a flag in the camp). It was used from the Warring States Period to the Edo Period. Generally, the flag bearer of a feudal lord was an ashigaru (foot soldier) who did not engage in combat. There were two types of flag shapes. The "Nagare-bata" 流旗or "Tenaga-bata" 手長旗was a long, thin flag with a pole at the top and a string tied at one end to the top of the flagpole. This type of flag is said to have appeared around the time of the Genpei wars. “Nobori-bata”,幟旗the war banner flag, also known as “a Chitsuki-bata" 乳付旗banner flag with nipples," is a rectangular flag cloth with several small pieces of cloth or leather called "nipples" regularly lined up and threaded through the flagpole so that the design of the flag can be distinguished from a flowing banner that is long and windswept and sometimes difficult to see. According to "Honcho Gunki Kou" compiled by Hakuseki Arai , the origin of the Nobori-bata war banner flag is said to have been a banner that Masanaga Hatakeyama attached nipples to the banner of his own army and hung it from a pole during the battle of Takeyama Castle in Kawachi Province over the family rights of Yoshinari Hatakeyama and his family in 1463. In fact, it appears in picture scrolls from the Genpei period (710-794). It is also thought that the banner with nipples was used even earlier as a long religious banner with a divine name or inscription.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 10 February 2023

There were two kuni named Awa, one in present-day Chiba and another in present-day Tokushima. Although the pronunciation is the same they are written different in Chinese characters. The first Awa was ruled by Satomi Daimyo, whose flag is not available, while the second was ruled by Hachisuka Yoshishige(1586-1620).
. Nozomi Kariyasu, 19 October 2000

Legend:
** - Link-only page to daimyos who ruled multiple kuni. See below.
*** - No flag, mon image only.

Editorial Note: some pages load slowly due to image sizes.

Mutsu	Kai	Settsu	Bingo
Dewa	Shinano	Tanba **	Izumo **
Sado **	Hida ***	Wakasa	Iwami **
Echigo	Suruga **	Tango **	Aki **
Ecchu **	Toutoumi	Oki	Nagato
Echizen	Mikawa	Tajima	Suou
Noto **	Mino	Inaba	Tsushima
Kaga	Owari	Harima **	Iki
Kouzuke	Ohmi	Awaji	Chikuzen **
Shimotuke	Iga **	Sanuki	Chikugo **
Hitachi	Ise	Awa	Hizen
Musashi	Shima	Tosa	Buzen
Shimofusa	Kii	Iyo	Bungo
Kazusa	Yamato	Houki ***	Higo
Awa ***	Izumi **	Mimasaka	Hyuga
Sagami **	Kawachi **	Bizen **	Osumi **
Izu	Yamashiro **	Bicchu	Satsuma **

What area does the kuni represent today? See our kuni-prefecture conversion page.

Mutsu	Matsushita Shigetsuna Katou Yoshiaki Tsugaru Nobuhiro Nanbu Toshinao
Dewa	Akita Toshisue Tozawa Masamori Akita Sanesue
Echigo	Mizoguchi Nobunao Hori Naoyori
Echizen	Niwa Nagashige Outani Yoshitsugu
Kaga	Maeda Toshitsune
Kuozuke	Ando Shigenaga Makino Yasunari Sakai Tadayo Sakakibara Yasukatu Maeda Toshitaka Sanada Nobuyoshi Maeda Toshitaka Matsudaira Yamatonokami
Shimotuke	Otawara Harukiyo Asano Nagashige Hori Chikayousi
Hitachi	Satake Yoshinobu Inaba Masakatu
Musashi	Matsushita Nakatsukasa Torii Tadamasa
Shimofusa	Doi Toshikatsu
Kazusa	Naito Masanaga
Awa	Satomi family
Izu	Hojyo Ujimune
Kai	Takeda Shingen
Shinano	Ogasawara Tadamasa Ogasawara Hindemasa Hoshina Masamitsu Sanada Noboyoshi
Hida	Kanamori family
Toutoumi	Inoue Masatoshi
Mikawa	Makino Tadanari Matsudaira Nobuyoshi Matsudaira Tadanao Nagai Naokatsu Tokugawa Ieyasu
Mino	Ikeda Tadatsugu Ikeda Toshitaka Oda Yorinaga
Owari	Oda Nobunaga Tokugawa Yoshinao
Ohmi	Ishida Mitsunari Ii Naotaka
Ise	Mukai Tadakatsu Hijikata Katsushige Furuta Shigekatsu
Shima	Kuki Moritaka
Kii	Asano Yoshinaga Tokugawa Yorinobu
Yamato	Honda Toshitugu
Settsu	Ohno Harunaga Ohno Harufusa Nakajima Ujitane Aoki Kazushige Katagiri Katsumoto Matsudaira Tadaaki
Wakasa	Kyougoku Tadataka
Oki	Goto Motsotugu
Tajima	Asano Nagaakira
Inaba	Kamei Shigemasa
Harima	Honda Tadamasa
Awaji	Wakisaka Yasumoto Ban Naoyuki
Sanuki	Ikoma Kazumasu
Awa	Hachisuka Yoshishige
Tosa	Yamanouchi Kazutoyo Chousokabe Morichika
Iyo	Ogawa Suketada Nonomura Masharu
Houki	Nanjyo family
Mimasaka	Mori Tadamasa
Bicchu	Itoh Nagatsugu Kinoshita Toshifusa
Bingo	Mizuno Katsunari
Nagato	Mouri Hidenari
Suou	Itakura Shigemune
Tsushima	So Yoshinari
Hizen	Nabeshima Katsushige Ishikawa Yasukatsu Matsukura Shigemasa Terasawa Hirotaka
Buzen	Mouri Katsunaga Sengoku Hidenori
Bungo	Mano Yorikane Mouri Takamasa Akiba Norimichi
Higo	Konishi Yukinaga
Hyuga	Shimazu Toyohisa