Children's Day in Japan

Children’s Day in Japan

Children’s Day is a national holiday in Japan, which always falls on May 5th.
The holiday apparently comes from an ancient Chinese story about carp, which swam up a waterfall and turned into dragons. The carp, or koi in Japanese, became symbols of perseverance.
The Japanese version tells of the koi swimming up the waterfall, but does not mention the dragons. Families fly giant carp windsocks from flagpoles next to the house for about 1 month before the holiday and about 2 weeks to a month after. These windsocks are called koinobori, carp flags. Originally flags with symbols of strength, such as carp, and the family crest were flown. On the same flagpole a streamer called a fukinagashi was flown. This symbolized the whip, the busho, samurai warrior leaders carried into battle. The busho was a symbol of the samurai’s authority.

Later the other symbols were dropped and only carp and sometimes the fukinagashi were used. Families generally stop flying the koinobori when their children are 10 or 11, about the time they enter junior high school.
Boy’s Day became an official holiday in the Edo Period and was set on May 5th. At the same time Girl’s Day was set on March 3rd. The holiday was established to help create a national identity and stress military training for boys. After World War II the name of the holiday was changed to Children’s Day to remove the stress on military training. Now, many families fly a koinobori for each member of the family, from the father down to the youngest son, but not for the daughters.

When a baby boy was born, the child’s maternal grandmother would give the koinobori to the parents as a present for the new baby. Originally, the grandmother might make the flag. Now the child’s father or mother buys the flag at the toy store. Since the parents buy ready-made koinobori now, many young people are unaware of their family’s crest. Some families do not fly koinobori anymore. Families who do fly koinobori also display special decorations. These are called musha-kazari, and are a model of samurai armor, samurai sword, and a bow and arrows. Sometimes it is just the helmet and sword or arrows. Musha-kazari are very expensive.

Families eat special rice cakes for Children’s Day. They eat chimaki and kashiwamochi. Chimaki is a chewy rice cake served wrapped in a bamboo leaf. Kashiwamochi is a chewy rice cake with sweet, red azuki bean paste inside, served between two oak leaves.
When they eat this food, the boys wear paper samurai helmets. Families fly the koinobori and fukinagashi in hopes that their children will be strong and healthy and to inspire the children to persevere. Some children thank their mothers for everything they do for them on this day.

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