At the time I picked up this off-to-war banner, I thought it was one of the most colorful I had seen.  It measures approximately 19.5″ wide X 81.” long. The white center panel is made from an age darkened silk material and is outlined with a heavy red crepe silk-satin material. The red crepe is sprinkled with what appears to be real gold foil. The upper art panel displays a Japanese navy organizational emblem of sun and outstretched rays. In its center, a dark blue navy anchor is superimposed. Below that, an attractive sea foam green squiggle design crosses the nobori from right to left. In the center of that design, a bright silver Japanese army star, made from a heavy silver foil paper, is shown. The banner also comes on its original wood pole with hanging cord and red-white tassels.

 

The vertical lines of kanji begin with a large red character for celebrating a man going off-to-war. The large black and smaller blue ideograms say “Celebrating Joining- Mr. Kajima Kozo. [Presented by]- Tange Nobuo”.

 

If anyone else has off-to-war banners to share, I would love to see them. There are many banners with typical art designs and some that you rarely see.

Nice banner. Rich A. in Pa.

Thanks Rich!  It was definitely not the kind you would see everyday.

I will post the ones I have.   Rich A. in Pa.

Terrific!  I'd like to see them.

Fair pics of the tops of the 3 banners I just got. These are over 10' long.  Rich A. in Pa.

Nice banners Rich!  Once they start getting over ten feet long, they are tougher to photograph; I have to shoot mine in sections at that point.  The art is what makes these really stand out.  When placed side by side on a wall, banners are a pretty awesome and colorful display!  A few years ago, a local museum did a display of some of my banners.  I had a couple that were longer than 30 feet.  Fortunately, the museum had multiple stories with an open stairwell in their lobby.  They hung the longest ones there; they made for an amazing display when the patrons entered the museum.    

Thanks.  I will post more.  Rich A. in Pa.

Here is another one of my banners, with description:

 

This Off To War Banner measures approximately 2′ 3″ wide X 13′ 8″ long; it definitely puddles on the ground.  The heavy white silk-satin banner material displays a beautiful high-low chrysanthemum and branch background design.  The colorful art was silk screened over the heavy material, and is sharp and clear.  The upper art panel begins with a large red orb in the center.  Running horizontally through it is a deep purple squiggle design (the squiggle design is pretty typical of off-to-war or triumphant return banners.) The sun orb is surrounded by jade green laurel and red berry branches on either side.  The branches are tied off in the center with an impressive red knotted bow.  Above that are two large purple kanji that designate a Soldier Going to War.  The lower edge of the norbori or banner is nicely finished by a gold and teal silk tassel.

The vertical row of large kanji characters say “Celebrating [Going] Off To The Front”. “For: Mr. Arai Kinsuke. [Presented by] Yokomizo [Of] Shitaya Town”.

 

 

 

Nice banner. The long ones are still nice. I have some big German flags.  More of my banners.  Rich a. in Pa.

Hey Rich-

     Those three banners that are posted side-by-side are all named to the same guy.  Are those the short banners that were normally hung from a small, hand-held poll by the owner (maybe about 2-3 feet in length)?  I like the one with the rays coming out of the battle flag/green squiggle!

Thanks. I know. I have the name somewhere. I do not know what kind of stuff the guy will get. I want all of the stuff he gets. Rich A. in Pa.

Yeah, I don't blame you!  It's tough though to tell how long those particular banners measure.  They look like the short ones that were supposed to be hand-held...  

The 3 small banners are about  8" by 32" and named to Sato Tatsukichi.  Will post more. Rich A. in Pa

Rich-

     Thank you for the measurements.  Those short, little banners normally had a round, wood ball finial that was used to attach the banner to a small, hand-held bamboo pole.  Many vintage off-to-war photographs that you see from the period, show the serviceman standing in front of a bevy of larger nobori/banners (like Rich's longer ones shown here.)  Those same photos sometimes show the man holding a small banner like one of these 3 side by side ones, suspended from a short pole.  I have not seen any shorter banners than these, while the longer ones are sometimes up to 40 feet-+ long.   

2 more. I have 2 flags named to the same guy as the 3 banners.  I will post them.  Rich A. in Pa.

Here is a white and black nobori that I currently have.  The suspension ties and hanging tassels are done in a light purple silk.  The long vertical lines of black kanji characters are clear and bold and say “Sending off [to the] Army Infantry Mr. Yamazaki Chie”.  

Nice banner.  Rich A. in Pa.

The flags.  Rich A. in Pa.

Rich-

     Those last two off to war flags are really nice!  The rectangular (flag shaped) nobori are on the tougher side to find; some styles of art are more commonly seen however.  I have seen others like your first one, but not the second; I really like it.  It looks like both banners have glitter on them...  Is there glitter on the cherry blossom? Or Is it only on the outline of the blue kanji characters?  

Here is one of the flag shaped off to war banners in my collection.  It was also featured in my recent book on Tiger Good Luck Flags.  The Kite has extensive glitter accents.  This particular banner is unusual because it was signed like a yosegaki flag, with numerous signatures and slogans.  It's quite eye grabbing.

Glitter is on the blue kanji. That is a fantastic flag. Rich A. in Pa.

Thanks Rich.  Here is the translation: 

 

This nobori/banner was presented to Abe Hideaki by the Aikoku Life Insurance Company, Ltd., Wada Kaneyasu, Supervisor.  That company was later merged into the Nippon Life Insurance Company.

Here's another one.  The 4 red painted kanji on either side of the small round sun combine to say, Jinchu Hokoku or “Loyalty And Bravery”.  The long vertical line of ideograms on the fly or left-hand side of the flag say, Shuku Nyuei Minowa Koichi Kun or “Celebrating Induction For Mr. Koichi Minowa”.  Positioned down near the lower right-hand corner of the flag are 2 separate, and smaller vertical lines of characters.  These say, [Presented In] “Tokyo by Kaneko Tomeyoshi”.

Another great flag.  Rich A. in Pa.