Flag of Yamagata
Officially Yamagata Prefecture
Locally Yamagata-ken · 山形県
What the flag looks like
Three white mountain peaks in a row on a blue field, each with a notch at its foot.
What it means
The peaks stand for the 山 (yama, "mountain") in Yamagata and for the Mogami River, the sharp points for progress, and the white for the snow on Mount Zaō's frost-covered trees.
How to remember it
Yamagata
means "mountain shape", and its flag is exactly that: three white mountains on blue.
Fun facts
- Yamagata grows about three-quarters of Japan's cherries.
- The field was first a dark blue-green, chosen to set off the red of Japan's flag; it became a brighter blue in 1971.
Yamagata at a glance
- Type
- Prefecture (ken)
- Island
- Honshū
- Capital
- Yamagata
- Region
- Tōhoku
- Population
- 993,127
- Area
- 9,323 km²
- Languages
- Japanese
- Currency
- Japanese yen (¥)
- Flag adopted
- 1963