Japanese nobori in battle fields	Log Out | Topics | Search Moderators | Edit Profile
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Author Message   Matthew Gerring Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2000 - 05:58 pm:    Anyone Have any information about the historical specifications of battlefield NOBORI?   info Posted on Saturday, September 16, 2000 - 09:54 am:    Dear Sir or Madam, Initially Japanese had used long horizontal flags, model coming China. It is well known that Heike family used red flags and Genji white flags during different battles which occurred at the end of 12th century. Though esthetically superior, horizontal flags happened to be unpractical in a real battle field, especially for horse riders, so during a great civil war of Onin between 1467 and 1477, someone had a genial idea to put them vertically, i.e. attach them parallel to the pole. "Nobori" means "upward", referring to the way to attach the flag to the pole. During the peaceful period of Edo, samurai families hoisted Nobori in "Tango no sekku" of May 5, while others hoisted Koinobori (flying carps). Nobori is still used nowadays in Japan for the advertisement, probably because man can write Japanese vertically to fit the form of Nobori. Please refer to Japanese history dictionary, if you find here incomprehensible words.