We’ve been in Japan for the last couple of days, and all around town people are hanging up fish kites. Our Japanese friends tell us that this is for the “Sky fish” festival, but they don’t really know how to explain it. One friend even told us that it comes from a Chinese tradition, but we don’t have anything like that (to my knowledge) in Taiwan.
Obviously, I know Taiwanese people don’t celebrate every single Chinese festival, but I’ve never seen the fish flying there.
So, what is the festival and what are it’s origins?
It’s for Kodomo no Hi - Children’s Day, which is held on May 5th each year.
The carp streamers are called Koi Nobori, and they are to wish for strength and health for children (actually boys, traditionally, but that’s sort of non-PC these days!). Carp are said to be strong swimmers who can go upstream against the current.
If you go by any rivers, have a look and see if they have any koinobori strung across it. Some towns collect people’s unwanted streamers and string them over the river - really colourful and fun!
I’ve never heard of that bit, but that doesn’t mean it is not so!
There are a few koinobori out around us. In Hokkaido it is a newer “frontier” area, so there are fewer tradtions. Where we used to live in a farming area of Shizuoka ken, every single farm had an enormous flagpole with five or six carp in graded sizes, the biggest one being tens of feet long. Really, really great sight in the spring sunshine! I miss that.
The part about becoming dragons is questionable. It’s certainly not universally said.
For clarification on the Chinese connection, the concept that koi swimming upstream signifies strength does come from Chinese, but the kites and the holiday are Japanese.
I got this from the Japanese Wikipedia but the thing about the dragon comes from a Chinese legend written in the Book of the Later Han: several fishes were trying to swim up a fall at Longmen on the Yellow River. All failed except the carp, who transormed into a dragon on the other side of the fall. (Dragons are river gods in Chinese mythology.) From this story, carps have been held as a symbol of success in Eastern Asia. However, I’d never heard of this story though and I doubt many Japanese people know of it either.
gitfiddle, since you’re in Tokyo, someplace that may be interesting to visit is Asakusabashi, which has a large concentration of shops selling festival- and holiday-related goods. Along with the carp kites for outside, families with sons also buy displays for inside the house as well. A typical one includes a kabuto helmet with other assorted symbolic items, along with a traditional doll display.
Asakusabashi is a little bit away from Asakusa, and is located on the Asakusa and Sobu train lines.