Original Item: One-Of-A-Kind. When Japanese men left for their military service, community organizations such as the local branch of the Imperial Reservists Association (teikoku zaigo gunjinkai) and the Greater Japan National Defense Women’s Association (dai nippon kokubo fujinkai) organized various celebrations, culminating in send-off parades to wish the troops well as they marched off to the local railway stations or ports. These send-off ceremonies were called sokokai and the participants in parades carried banners with the names of the recruits on them. The Japanese term for banner is nobori, and the exact Japanese name for them depends on the slogan. Here we refer to them as a “shussei nobori” or “Off To War Banners”.

They came in a wide variety of sizes, including some that were huge, though most commonly they are around five or six feet in length (150-180cm). These banners were usually made of silk or an early silk-like synthetic like rayon, though cotton was also used.

This is a very interesting example which is built more as a flag, but has similar motifs and messages. The central motif shows a bird with the words translating to “Japanese Spirit”. The painted kanji to the right reads Congratulations to Kaoru Ito. Next to that is Faithfulness.

To the left are names of people who signed his banner, Ishii, Ikawa, Fujikawa, Fujitaki, Kuma, Takehei, and Saburo. 

The banner measures 30 x 33” and has fringe along the three sides and two leather corner reinforcements at one end. The tie strings are retained as well.

These made for a most impressive display and signified to everyone that a particular man was being celebrated for his induction into the military. Kanji characters on the nobori normally gave the name of the man going into the military, as well as the name of the person or organization sponsoring the banner. The artwork on each shussei nobori was generally chosen by the person purchasing the banner from a banner or flag store. Once selected, the name characters were painted onto the material by the shop owner.

Comes ready for research and display!