Japanese Regimental Flags

Iain of Flags of War has worked his magic again, this time on the Japanese Regimental flags:

 Japanese Regimental Standards, 2.50 Euros/sheet

The Japanese used the same pattern for all their regimental flags. (I guess this was an important issue for the identity of the Imperial Army as the army of an unified and modern Japan in contrast to the colourfull and diverse banners and symbols used by the Daimyōs and the Shōgun before the Meiji-Restauration). 

The only difference was the regimental number written in Japanese kanjis in the field in the lower corner next to the flag pole.
I've discussed the issue with Iain and we have decided to leave these numbers off the flags, so you can add the number of the regiment you want to depict or just leave it as it is. (We are working on a list with all the numbers in kanjis for those regiments involved in the Russo-Japanese War.)

To my knowledge, this pattern remained virtually unchanged until the dissolving of the Imperial Japanese Army at the end of the Second World War. In addition, these flags were never repaired or renewed as they were granted to the regiment during it's founding ceremony by the Emperor and thus considered a divine/holy gift. A lot of photos from later periods show them rendered to nothing but the purple border. 

At the end of the Second World War nearly all the flags were ceremonially reduced to ashes to avoid capture by allied forces.