RSSKoinobori
May 14
Ideas, Japanese Lessons boys, children's day, koi, koinobori, may, sons No Comments
It’s a bit late to mention Children’s Day (May 5) but the carp streamers (koinobori) are up until June 5 so it’s not that late. They put these up so that sons would grow up healthy and strong, from the belief that carp are resilient creatures.
This is a typical set.
At the very top of the pole is a sphere called the kagodama 駕籠玉 (palanquin+ball) which supposedly brings the gods to this world. The arrow wheel is called a yaguruma (Ya meaning arrow. Guruma, from kuruma, meaning car.) and was a sign used in homes keep evil spirits away. The streamer is actually a flying dragon (hiryufukinagashi 飛龍吹流 literally flying dragon blow flow) and the 5 colors stand for the five elements.
These three make up the original pole, the carp were added later. The first is the hugest and black, and is called the magoi (真鯉). The kanji means “true carp”, and being a fish hobbyist, I know that this was because carp were originally black. They turned into the colorful fish they are now because of experimental breeding begun by the Chinese. Magoi represents the father.
Second one is the red and smaller higoi (緋鯉), representing the mom. Third is blue and even smaller. As you can expect, the aogoi finally represents the son.
You gotta wonder if the mom was really meant to be included. Here is the traditional song for the koinobori.
屋根より高い鯉幟
大きな真鯉はお父さん
小さな緋鯉は子供たち
面白そうに泳いでる
Yane yori takai koi-nobori
Ōki na magoi wa o-tō-san
Chiisa na higoi wa kodomo-tachi
Omoshirosō ni oyoideru
Translation:
Higher than the rooftops are the koinobori
The large black carp is the father
The smaller red carp are the children
They seem to be having fun swimming.
Then you add more carp below if you have other sons.
Or just get the whole neighborhood together:
You can buy them online. Sizes range from less than a meter to as long as 10 meters. A complete set could also be as low as 500 yen or as high as 1,000,000 yen.
Next post: how to create your own koinobori at home from paper. Stay tuned.
