Public Spark

March 3 of every year is Girl’s day in the Japanese culture and May 5th of every year is boy’s day, also known as Children’s Day. It used to be called Tango no sekku (meaning feast of the banners). On girl’s day the doll’s are displayed, but on Children’s day the carp-shaped Koinobori flags are displayed, as pictured below.

My family never had boys so we didn’t celebrate much of this. However, it was an excuse for us to eat Kashiwa mochi (which are mochi rice cakes wrapped in Kashiwa (oak) leaves.

However, at Japanese school we would often celebrate this more. We would have special art projects to make koinobori flags. I remember making the kabuto (military helmet) out of origami (Japanese art of paper folding). This was also the time that I heard of the Japanese story Kintaro. He was a hero in the Heian period, a subordinate samurai famous for his strength as a child. Often he is illustrated in books as riding a bear and playing with animals in the mountains.