Tokyo Ward Flags

Some time ago I found myself at the the Palio horse race in Sienna. The Palio is an impressively pomped-up festival that draws heavily on local heritage and identity. The competitors in the race each represent a ward of the city (contrade) with its own livery. It was quite a spectacle to watch the parades of each district flaunting their colours and flags through a rival ward in a show of amicable defiance. Foreign visitors often ally themselves to the livery they find most visually appealing. The concept of outsiders allying themselves to a flag (and an unknown set of values and identities) based purely on colours or design was quite thrilling to me. This all came flooding back to me when I recently discovered that Tokyo has it’s own distinctive livery for each of its 23 city wards and they’re pretty cracking too.

The wards themselves have enjoyed a considerable degree of autonomy in relation to other Japanese cities and in the commercially drowned world of Tokyo it feels like these coats of arms reflect an undercurrent of territorial identity. The minimal geometrics fuse with the traditional symmetry of old Kamon. They feel relatively contemporary considering some of them were adopted as early as the 1940′s.  They could almost exist as logos for some kind of futuristic shipping fleet in space.

As a set they are cohesive and iconic. Compare them to some of  London’s complicated and seemingly dull borough logos and they seem to triumph. But it’s important to remember that they are used in different ways. A flag is not really a logo and vice versa. I do sort of wish that the same level of graphic prowess had been employed over here  in London for our boroughs. However I just caught myself wincing at the thought of the average Londoner’s cynical response if one of the above designs turned up on the header of their  council tax bill.