I was wondering how this would work? You need a free hand to wield it.
1) can I put it on the back of my great axe? Nice visual.
2) lance?
3) or dose that thing the samurai have on their backs count as holding?
Can I beat people with it? Like is it a spear? Or a quarter staff?
You could probably use it as an improvised weapon unless it happens to be attached to your lance. But even then you'd just be attacking with the lance, not the actual banner itself.
Carrying a flag requires a free hand. That also means, if you do anything with that hand other than carry the flag, you are not, for the purpose of the feat 'carrying the flag'.
So you could put it on your great axe if you want, but if you are using your flag hand to beat beat people with you axe, you arn't 'carrying the flag' from a rules perspective, you are instead beating the heck out of someone with an axe.
One minor point that isn't addressed is what would happen if you were to not hold it during your turn, but be holding it when it wasn't your turn. My belief is the intent is that your allies only get the benefit if you satisfied the requirements for the feat during your turn, and that is how I would rule in my games, but the text itself doesn't specify that.
So technically you could do something like transfer the flag to a light shield hand (not 'free' but capable of holding things) make some attacks or cast a spell with your other hand, and then transfer the banner back to your now free hand at the end of your turn. This appears legal rules wise, but definitely seems to be against the spirit of the feat.
If you want to attach the flag to a weapon, you need a Banner of the Ancient Kings, which gives you the benefits while attaching it to a Longspear.
As mplindustries says, Banner of the Ancient Kings is the way to go. It bumps up Flagbearer from "meh" to "ooh!" on the scale of monosyllabic responses. It explicitly lets you use a longspear with the banner (not a bad weapon anyway) and adds in a bunch of extra bonuses. Buy one.
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3) or dose that thing the samurai have on their backs count as holding?
That thing, btw, is called a sashimono. Or back-banner, if you prefer.
It wasn't just a samurai thing, either.