Koinobori - Japanese Carp Streamers
By thomas on May 5, 2008 in Japanese
Today (May 5th) is Children’s Day in Japan, and that means today’s Word of the Day is 鯉幟 (koinobori). 鯉 (koi) means “carp” and 幟 (nobori) means something like “flag”, so 鯉幟 (koinobori) translates into English as “carp streamer“.
Japanese families (who have boys) put these carp streamers up to celebrate boys. My wife and I had a son last year, so we got some.
At the top of the pole are 矢車 (yaguruma). 矢 means “arrow” and 車 means “car” or “wheel”. If you look closely, you will see that the wheels are spoked with arrows, hence 矢車. The fletching of the arrow-spokes catches the wind and makes the wheels turn.
The koinobori are sold in sets of four. At the top is a plain old wind sock and beneath it are three carp windsocks. The black carp is the father, the red is the mother and the blue one is the boy. A koinobori set can cost anything from 10,000 yen (US$100) to 60,000 yen (US$600). Ours was 40,000 yen and some change. Not cheap by any means, but you only have to buy them once, you use them year after year, and up close they are actually pretty freaking cool.
You hang your koinobori at the beginning of May, and then take them down on June 5th, one month after Children’s Day. Our koinobori are hung off of our balcony, and as you can see, the boy likes it!
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I love seeing koinobori around Japan but had no idea that they cost so much! I’m glad to hear that your son is enjoying it - that alone makes the money worth it.
As the tradition of the day goes may your son have good health and be strong and successful.
Shane | May 5, 2008 | Reply
When I lived in Hawaii as a child, we would make carp streamers out of construction paper and yarn for Children’s Day. It was interesting how many Japanese customs we studied in Hawaii, although now that I think about it a large number of my teachers there were Japanese.
Peter | May 5, 2008 | Reply
Boy do I feel like a cheapskate! Ours only cost 2,000 yen! Actually, the awful weather today has probably blown it away… better go check…
Nick Ramsay | May 5, 2008 | Reply
Fly ‘em high and proud, baby!
billywest | May 5, 2008 | Reply
@Shane: I didn’t know they’d be so expensive either. Noah’s maternal grandparents footed the bill for us though :) Thanks for your well-wishes!
@Peter: You made carp streamers for Japanese Children’s Day? Or is there some American Children’s Day that I’m not aware of?
@Nick Ramsay: The first one we got actually cost about 200 yen at the supermarket :). But then the grandparents offered to get us a more special one.
@billywest: Will do!
thomas | May 6, 2008 | Reply
@thomas: Yes, it was for Japanese Children’s Day. It was not any official holiday in any sense, but something we did in school. Hawaii was easily the most multi-cultural place I’d ever lived.
peter | May 6, 2008 | Reply
Thomas,
Koinobori looks awesome! Are you in Japan? If so are there any websites that you know of that sell all components of the Koinobori
I live in Hawaii and am having a hard time finding the streamer by itself. I can find a few places that sell nylon carp but not the streamer.
thanks
dwight in Hawaii
dwight | Apr 14, 2009 | Reply