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Kirei – Posters from Japan

Koichi Sato: Hinomaru, the Circle of the Sun

Although it is not difficult to draw the Japanese flag, a solid red circle centered on a white surface, the far-reaching import of the design belies its simplicity of form. Since I would even venture to claim that our flag illustrates the essence of Japanese poster design, it shall serve as the basis of argument in the following essay. I hope in this way to illuminate current poster design in Japan and the cultural background in which it is embedded.

Many national flags have a name: the ‘Union Jack’, the ‘Stars and Stripes’, the ‘Tricolore’, etc. The Japanese national flag is known as the ‘Hinomaru’, the circle of the sun.

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