ChiramiWhat Japan's flag is really called (日の丸)
Japan’s flag, a red disc on white, is called 日の丸 (hinomaru) in Japanese: 日 (hi), sun, の (no), of, and 丸 (maru), circle. The circle of the sun. Its official name, the one written into law, is 日章旗 (nisshouki), the sun-mark flag, but in everyday Japanese almost everyone says hinomaru.
What the kanji say
日 (hi, nichi) is the sun, and also a day. It began as a drawing of the sun. It’s the first kanji of 日本 (Nihon or Nippon), Japan, which literally means “the sun’s origin”: the place the sun comes from.
丸 (maru) is a circle. As an adjective, 丸い (marui), it means round, and it can also mean whole: 丸ごと (marugoto) is “the whole thing, in one piece”. Nobody is sure what the kanji first pictured. The Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese dictionary from around 100 CE, explains it as the character 仄, “to tilt”, turned around: something that tilts and turns, so something round.
の in the middle isn’t a kanji at all. It’s the hiragana that links two words, like “of” or “‘s” in English, so 日の丸 is the sun’s circle.
Where it really comes from
The design is old, but its legal status is recent. An 1870 proclamation set out how the flag should look, and in 1999 the Act on National Flag and Anthem made it Japan’s official national flag, under the name 日章旗.
The flag with red rays shining out from the disc is a different one. That’s the Rising Sun flag, 旭日旗 (kyokujitsuki), used by Japan’s old imperial army and navy and, in versions of its own, by today’s Self-Defense Forces. The national flag has no rays.
The video’s second point is a different use of the same kanji: many Japanese ships, fishing boats among them, have names ending in 丸. For the past few centuries the ending has been used for merchant and private ships, not warships. JMdict also lists 丸 as a name ending for people, especially children, for swords and musical instruments, and for dogs and horses.
Why 丸? Nobody knows for sure. The main ideas are:
- A floating castle. 丸 also names the walled sections of a Japanese castle, such as 本丸 (honmaru), the inner citadel.
- A name for treasured things. The same ending went on things people loved, so sailors gave it to their ships.
- A round trip. Like a circle, a ship should end where it started, safely back in its home port.
How to use it
観客が日の丸を振っている。
Kankyaku ga hinomaru o futte iru.
The crowd is waving Japanese flags.
今日のお昼は日の丸弁当です。
Kyou no ohiru wa hinomaru bentou desu.
Lunch today is a hinomaru bento.
正しい答えに丸を付けてください。
Tadashii kotae ni maru o tsukete kudasai.
Circle the correct answer.
ケーキを丸ごと食べた。
Keeki o marugoto tabeta.
I ate the whole cake.
日の出を見に行こう。
Hinode o mi ni ikou.
Let's go and watch the sunrise.
- 日の丸 is the everyday name, 日章旗 is the formal one, and 国旗 (kokki) means any country’s national flag.
- A 日の丸弁当 (hinomaru bentou) is plain white rice with one red pickled plum, 梅干し (umeboshi), in the middle: the flag in a lunch box.
- In Japan, a circle means “correct”. Teachers mark right answers with ○, read maru, and wrong ones with ×, read batsu. That’s why “circle the correct answer” uses 丸.
Words with the same kanji
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 日本 | Nihon, Nippon | Japan |
| 日の出 | hinode | sunrise |
| 丸い | marui | round |
| 丸ごと | marugoto | whole, in one piece |
| 本丸 | honmaru | the inner citadel of a castle |
| 日の丸弁当 | hinomaru bentou | rice with one pickled plum in the middle |
Remember it
A red sun (日) needs something round to sit in: 丸. Join them with の and you have the flag, the sun’s circle. Then look for 丸 again on the bow of the next fishing boat you see.
The kanji in this lesson
Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.