Hello, Boys!
This coming 5th of May is Boys' Day - now known officially as Children's Day or Kodomo no Hi, which takes place in Golden Week. It is traditional for carp flags to be raised, prior to this festive day, in honour of the kiddie's celebrations.
I was fortunate enough to observe such a sight last weekend. The charming Miss Morning Glory, an old scholar from the Hearn & Chamberlain School of Refined Conversation, took me on a Sunday country drive in her roaring motor car. First she escorted me to the Chinese teahouse Cafe Chinois for tea and delectable seafood dishes, and then onto the River Iu, where row upon row of long, brightly hued koi-no-bori (carp streamers) flapped and rippled in the gusty wind, hoisted high upon metal wires above the babbling waters of the Iu. The black koi symbolise the father, the red koi - the mother, and the smaller koi - the children. I snapped a few abysmal pics on my portable camerabox-phone. It was a most beautiful scene to watch the fish swimming upon the currents of wind, and below children shrieked and leaped in an effort to grab the carps' elusive tails that whipped overhead with a deft cracking sound.
The feminine counterpart - Girls' Day, the Dolls' Festival or Hinamatsuri - is celebrated on the 3rd of March. Girls display extravagant dolls, dressed in the finery of the Heian Court, on wooden-stepped platforms in their homes. On the evening before my koi-no-bori viewing, I had visited the residence of Nihonophile, the vivacious Mrs P, who showed me her own dolls which were ensconced in glass cases. These dolls were not of courtly appearance however. Of an 80-year vintage, with heads of porcelain and donning original kimono material of the era, as well as miniature kanzashi hair adornments, and with whimsical names such as the Lady Wisteria, these demure ladies had seemingly stepped out of a Japonisme print.
It is most impressive that traditional festivities such as these have survived the centuries and continue to be celebrated with great spirit to this day. I adore the Japanese festival calendar, especially those festivals tied so closely to nature and the passing of the four seasons. The next anticipated seasonal events will be those of summer: hotaru or firefly viewing (Miss Morning Glory knows the perfect spot), and hanabi or fireworks festivals - a chance to dust off my yukata and whip out my fan to beat off summer's carnival of insect life. Eek, for that!
I was fortunate enough to observe such a sight last weekend. The charming Miss Morning Glory, an old scholar from the Hearn & Chamberlain School of Refined Conversation, took me on a Sunday country drive in her roaring motor car. First she escorted me to the Chinese teahouse Cafe Chinois for tea and delectable seafood dishes, and then onto the River Iu, where row upon row of long, brightly hued koi-no-bori (carp streamers) flapped and rippled in the gusty wind, hoisted high upon metal wires above the babbling waters of the Iu. The black koi symbolise the father, the red koi - the mother, and the smaller koi - the children. I snapped a few abysmal pics on my portable camerabox-phone. It was a most beautiful scene to watch the fish swimming upon the currents of wind, and below children shrieked and leaped in an effort to grab the carps' elusive tails that whipped overhead with a deft cracking sound.
The feminine counterpart - Girls' Day, the Dolls' Festival or Hinamatsuri - is celebrated on the 3rd of March. Girls display extravagant dolls, dressed in the finery of the Heian Court, on wooden-stepped platforms in their homes. On the evening before my koi-no-bori viewing, I had visited the residence of Nihonophile, the vivacious Mrs P, who showed me her own dolls which were ensconced in glass cases. These dolls were not of courtly appearance however. Of an 80-year vintage, with heads of porcelain and donning original kimono material of the era, as well as miniature kanzashi hair adornments, and with whimsical names such as the Lady Wisteria, these demure ladies had seemingly stepped out of a Japonisme print.
It is most impressive that traditional festivities such as these have survived the centuries and continue to be celebrated with great spirit to this day. I adore the Japanese festival calendar, especially those festivals tied so closely to nature and the passing of the four seasons. The next anticipated seasonal events will be those of summer: hotaru or firefly viewing (Miss Morning Glory knows the perfect spot), and hanabi or fireworks festivals - a chance to dust off my yukata and whip out my fan to beat off summer's carnival of insect life. Eek, for that!
posted by Miss Ember at 10:37 pm
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