The Japanese Navy Signal Flags are a set of
maritime signal flags for conveying messages in the Japanese language.
The system generally uses the standard International Signal Flags, assigning both the letter, number and repeater flags to various
kana
The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most pr ...
, roughly following
Iroha
The is a Japanese poem. Originally the poem was attributed to the founder of the Shingon Esoteric sect of Buddhism in Japan, Kūkai, but more modern research has found the date of composition to be later in the Heian period (794–1179). Th ...
order for the standard letter flags. The system also has several unique flags for some kana, as well as for conveying non-alphabetic messages.
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category:Maritime flags
category:Maritime signalling
category:Nonverbal communication
category:Optical communications
category:Signal flags
category:Encodings of Japanese