Asian Ethnology 83-2 | article Festivals, Rituals, and Fish-Shaped Streamers Perceptions of Japan’s Children’s Day

Andreas Riessland

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For more than 250 years, Japanese families have celebrated the birth of a male heir by hoisting large fish-shaped streamers called koinobori (carp streamers) at or near their home throughout the weeks leading up to the boys’ festival day (now Children’s Day) on May 5. But with recent demographic shifts and changing lifestyles, the tall koinobori displays have become noticeably fewer, and with them, public knowledge about this once important ritual and its role in the communal and spiritual life of Japan’s families is on the wane. This article seeks to investigate the history of this ritual and its various facets of meaning, along with the changes it has undergone throughout its history and its substantial shift from what was once an outdoor, communal event to a private affair within the confines of the family home.