I don't know this name at, in the context of beads. But what surprises me are the details of the story. Early Venetian millefiori beads that traveled to Ethiopia, but wound up in Japan (?). It all seems very unlikely.

How did you happen to hear this tale?

"Bandiera" is Italian for flag. Since the Italian flag—the tricolore—has bands of red, white, and green, we might expect such beads to have something like this (or the colors of other nations' flags). Lots of Venetian beads have multicolored trailed lines that resemble Italian (and other ) flags—as well as patterns I call "banners" that look like small flags or pennants. While these are composed from multi-colored elements, the work is not millefiori work (though it might be mistakenly said to be that).

It's very curious........

Jamey