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Japan celebrates Children’s Day by flying beautiful carp streamers 【Photos】

Casey Baseel May 7, 2015
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While people in Japan put up decorations to celebrate different holidays, most of them are placed inside the home, such as the dolls for Girls’ Day/Hina Matsuri in March or the vegetables displayed during Obon in the summer. Out in public, though, though, you’d be hard-pressed to tell one Japanese holiday from another, with the exception of Children’s Day/Kodomo no Hi on May 5.

That’s because when Children’s Day rolls around, all you have to do is look up at all of the beautifully awesome carp streamers flying overhead,

Children’s Day used to be known as Boys’ Day, and families with sons would fly a carp streamer (koinobori in Japanese) for each of their male children above their home. As the cloth caught the breeze, it would writhe back and forth, looking like it was valiantly swimming upstream, which was taken as a symbol showing that the family’s young men would grow up to be similarly strong and brave.

Since May 5 became officially renamed Children’s Day, some families have begun flying carp streamers for their daughters as well, although the practice is still much more widespread in families with boys. What hasn’t changed, though, is how cool they look.

https://twitter.com/wasabitool/status/594989684100476928

While many families still fly their koinobori individually from the roofs or balconies of their own homes, in some communities they’re displayed en masse, often strung over a river.

吹く風爽やか
材木岩（宮城県白石市）の鯉のぼり pic.twitter.com/eDOQfzLNbV

— 時計草 (@tokeisou88) April 30, 2015

皆さん、お早うございますヽ(´∀`｡)ﾉ
早いもので風薫る５月に成りました。
今月も楽しいお付き合いを宜しくお願いします☆
では、楽しいゴールデンウイークを٩(๑′∀ ‵๑)۶•*¨*•.¸¸♪❤
行って来まーす♪#鯉のぼり pic.twitter.com/qSiT5ftKhW

— よっちゃん (@utamarukousa) April 30, 2015

While this practice is most common in rural areas, you can sometimes spot it in more developed areas as well.

【恋のぼり】

五月晴れの気持ちいい午後
川を泳ぐ鯉のぼり
私の気持ちもあなたの心に
たどりつけますように…

大人の日もあったらいいのにね…
素敵な休日をお過ごしください
*⑅ ⋆♡*⑅ ⋆♡*⑅ ⋆♡*⑅ ⋆♡*⑅ ⋆ pic.twitter.com/c1gRLgM350

— hiroro (@hika_ri1020) May 2, 2015

「鯉のぼりすぎ」

☆大阪府高槻市/芥川桜堤公園#写真好きな人と繋がりたい pic.twitter.com/sTcbdK6LsA

— ふぁぼぴく@きょうすけ (@kyousukeimg) May 2, 2015

Of course, if you’re living in the concrete jungle of urban Japan, you might not have a river nearby. That’s not an insurmountable problem, though, as shown in this video by expat and YouTube user BusanKevin who lives in an apartment complex that hangs its koinobori between the high-rises.

Sometimes, the koinobori are amassed in such a large school of fabric fish that they almost block out the sky.

https://twitter.com/TheZekkei/status/593265252491362304

おはようございます。
今日も「感謝」の気持ちと「ありがとう」が素直に言える一日。
そして、笑顔で過ごしましょう。
写真は、【鯉のぼり】→ pic.twitter.com/Ot32F416vW

— イルカ (@shonan_iruka) May 2, 2015

▼ Even this dog got in on the carp streamer fun.

コロンたん、鯉のぼりの羽根が生えました😁 pic.twitter.com/Rn9vBZOtnn

— 白ポメラニアンコロンちゃん (@5577coron) May 2, 2015

▼ A rare case of color-coordinated koinobori

青い鯉のぼりプロジェクト。東松島市大曲浜地区では追悼の意味を込めて、毎年この時期に数百匹の青い鯉のぼりを揚げます。5日の昼にはこの下で演奏などのイベントも開かれます。https://t.co/FwLbRXeLoW pic.twitter.com/jg2zVT2WOX

— T. Suzuki (@jpnsuzuki) April 29, 2015

As a matter of fact, koinobori have such an established cultural legacy that they were even included in Disney’s Big Hero 6, albeit in mechanized form.

And of course, like any iconic image of Japan, they look especially cool with Mt. Fuji in the background.