A Day of Koinobori Carp and Sweet Treats

Celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month, Children’s Day, or Kodomo no Hi. marks the final celebration of Japan’s long annual national holiday Golden Week. 

Traditionally called Tango no Sekku, which actually means Boy’s Day, it began as a counterpart to Hinamatsuri, or Girl’s Day on March 3. Today, though, it celebrates the personal growth and happiness of all children, while honouring parents, relatives and teachers for their work.

Originally inherited as a cultural practice from ancient China, it was not until 1948 that the Japanese government officially recognised the event as a national holiday. With this declaration also came a change of name to Kodomo no Hi, Children’s Day.

Despite many still referring to the holiday as Boy’s Day, it is a festive occasion that not only celebrates sons and fathers, but also mothers and daughters — the entire family.

An Edo Period Utagawa Yoshifuji woodblock print of boys playing samurai games on May 5th, then known as Tango no Sekku. Public domain.

 

On this special day, families often display miniature samurai dolls, helmets or armour — a throwback to Boy’s Day — and hang up colourful carp-shaped "koinobori" windsocks.
Vigorous and vibrant fish, carp are seen as symbols of strength, power and success.

The colours and sizes of koinobori carps once represented of each member of the family — large and black for the father, middle-sized red for the mother and smaller ones in different colours for children. The eldest son in the family was usually given a blue carp, with siblings given a choice of green, orange and purple.

Also emblematic of courage and determination, the carp has earned its place in East Asian culture. Its significance dates back to an old Chinese myth depicting a carp that fought against the current of a mighty river and, in his battle to swim upstream and over a waterfall, turned into a fierce dragon. 

Now this myth is represented by the flutter of the koinobori in the wind as they are flown between the rooftops of neighboring buildings. At the top of the family of carp is a five colour streamer representing the five elements and a symbol of protection.

 

Woodblock print of a carp swimming upstream by Yashima Gakutei  Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

These days, not everyone has gardens or space to display a full koinobori set, resulting in the creation of plenty of smaller versions, even miniatures that families can display as interior decorations in the home.

But to still see koinobori in their full glory, many public buildings in Japan often hold impressive displays to be enjoyed by everyone. At Tokyo Tower, exactly 333 carp are flown off its structure as a nod to the tower’s height of 333 meters.

Other activities of the day include eating "kawashi mochi," sticky rice cake treats filled with sweet red bean paste and wrapped in oak leaves, and "chimaki," sticky rice cakes wrapped in iris or bamboo leaves. It is also customary to end the day with a dip in a hot shobu-yu bath with iris leaves and roots floating in the water — herbs believed to welcome good fortune and ward off evil.

Why not make this an extra special day for your kids, too, and take a look at our collection of Children's items from Japan.

 

Image ©Keith Ng

10 Interesting Facts about Kodomo no Hi

1. The iris used for shobu-yu baths has a double meaning — and it is very deliberate.
Shobu, the name of the iris plant used in the bath is a Japanese word that also means "martial spirit" and "victory or defeat." The plant was chosen for Children's Day traditions because of this wordplay. The irises long, sword-shaped leaves were associated with samurai culture, and the connection between the flower and the idea of courage and competition made it a natural symbol celebrate the spirit, strength and boundless potential of children.

2. Girl's Day on March 3rd, led to the Kodomo no Hi public holiday being originally known as Boys Day. But Girl’s Day is not a public holiday.
Kodomo no Hi, Children's Day, officially designated as May 5th in 1948, is one of the few occasions in the Japanese calendar officially observed by the entire country.

3. The word "koinobori" is itself a story.
“Koinobori” comes from a Japanese proverb — “koi no taki-nobori” — meaning "carp fighting upstream in a waterfall," a reference to a Chinese legend of a carp that became a dragon. Over time, the phrase was shortened to koinobori.

4. The samurai helmet shares its name with a stag beetle.
Because of the similarities of a Japanese stag beetle’s horn and the crest of a traditional Japanese samurai helmet, both are named “kabuto.” The helmet came first, and the beetles seeming like tiny insect samurai is part the reason why Japanese children delight in collecting the beetles as pets.

5. Making origami kabuto is a Children's Day tradition in itself.
Folding a samurai helmet from a single sheet of newspaper or paper — a form of origami called kabuto ori — is one of the most widely practised Children's Day activities in Japan, with the hats worn by children throughout the day. It is one of the origami forms taught in virtually every Japanese primary school.

Chimaki sticky rice cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves are often served as a treat on Children's Day. Ocdp, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

6. East and west Japan eat different sweets on Kodomo no Hi
In eastern Japan, the traditional Children's Day sweet is kashiwa mochi — rice cake filled with red bean paste and wrapped in an oak leaf, which symbolises family continuity because the oak does not shed its old leaves until new ones have grown. In western Japan, where oak trees are less common, chimaki is more typical — sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, a tradition with roots in ancient China. It’s a regional divide still observed today.

7. Chimaki actually has a sad, 2,300-year-old story behind it.
The chimaki eaten on Children's Day traces back to the story of Qu Yuan, a Chinese poet and statesman who, who, in 278 BCE, waded into the Miluo River holding a rock upon hearing that his beloved state of Chu had fallen to its enemies. The public mourned him by throwing rice balls wrapped in leaves into the river to protect his spirit. The custom travelled to Japan with other Chinese seasonal festivals, and the date — the fifth day of the fifth month — has carried special significance ever since.

8. The koinobori flying carp banners at Tokyo Skytree outnumber those at Tokyo Tower more than four to one.
Tokyo Tower's annual display of 333 carp streamers — chosen to match the tower's height of 333 metres — is perhaps the most photographed koinobori display in Japan. But Tokyo Skytree flies 1,500 koinobori along the river on its southern side during Japan’s Golden Week holidays, making it the larger of the two spectacles. Both events are now major seasonal landmarks of the capital.

Koinobori carp banners on display at Tokyo Tower  Yoshikazu TAKADA from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

9. There is a fish imposter hiding among the carp at Tokyo Tower.
Every year since 2011, one of the 334 streamers at Tokyo Tower is not a carp at all. A six-metre Pacific saury — sanma-nobori — flies among the koinobori as a symbol of solidarity with Ofunato City in Iwate Prefecture, which was severely affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Tokyo Tower has maintained this tribute annually ever since. Most visitors walk past without spotting it.

10. Kintaro — Japan's golden boy — is one of the most beloved figures of the day.
The samurai dolls displayed at Children's Day often depict Kintaro, a red-skinned child of superhuman strength from Japanese folklore. Kintaro wrestled bears and befriended forest animals before growing up to become a great samurai. He is one of three famous taro folk heroes — alongside Momotaro and Urashima Taro — and his image on Children's Day represents the hope that children will grow up brave, strong, and good-hearted.