An Ainu flag was designed by Bikki Sunazawa, a Japanese sculptor of Ainu ancestry.^[1][2][3]

Upon a repeated request from his friend, Bikki Sunazawa eventually designed the flag in 1973 – although he distanced himself from political activism seeking government support. Nevertheless, an Ainu group displayed the flag when they marched at a May Day celebration in Sapporo in the same year.^[4] On rare occasions, it is still seen at Ainu functions.^[5]

In 2020 Bikki's son Jin Sunazawa claimed copyright ownership and requested disuse of the flag.^[6]

The flag's ratio is most likely 2:3. The flag consists of a cerulean blue field standing for sky and sea, a white figure standing for snow, and a red arrow flying beneath Hokkaido's sky.^[7] The arrow is red because of surku, the aconite poison used in traditional hunting, a way of life that was banned by the Japanese.^[5] The white figure, commonly known as Bikki mon'yō, was not a traditional Ainu motif but Bikki's personal invention.^[8]