Japanese Prefectural Flag Twins - Wakayama & Ibaraki: Part 8

Flag of Ibaraki

The prefectural flags of Ibaraki and Wakayama are the hallmark of Yin and Yang. Their coloration is counter charged - as it would be in heraldic terms. Ibaraki is blue with white rose but Wakayama is white with a Katakana 'WA.'

Geographically they are both on the western pacific sides. They are far enough from the congested Osaka-Kinki and Tokyo-Kanto metropolises - where the pace of life is decidedly slower and more country.

Flag of Wakayama
The most importantt event linking these two prefectures rests on the shoulders of Morie Ueshiba who is the founder of Aikido. Morie Ueshiba was born in Wakayama and died in Ibaraki. Aikdo is a martial art that strives for the holy grail of fighting. An Aikido master redirects the force of an attacker away or back at the attacker without doing harm, but yet being able to subdue the opponent. In modern terms you can think of it as a mix of Spock's knockout grip combined with Neo's invincibility moves in the Matrix.

Morie Ueshiba
founder of Aikido

Morie Ueshiba was born of that generation that first marvelled unto the modern age. He lived though the first Chinese-Japanese War of 1895, Russo-Japanese War, WWI, World War II, and Korean War. Morie lived in that transitional era where the ancient way of feudal of society was witness to the journeys of man to the moon - 1969. He lived in the nexus between the ancient feudal era and modern technological now.

The flags of Ibaraki and Wakayama are like Yin and Yang or Past and Future.




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