towel brush koinobori

This big-eyed blue fish is my latest koinobori etegami. Koinobori are carp-shaped windsocks that are flown from flag poles for Children's Day Festival, symbolizing parents' hopes that their children (especially sons) will grow up to have perseverance, strength, and courage. I used a "towel brush" instead of the standard writing brush for the lines in this one. A towel brush is made by fastening a bit of terrycloth towel around the tip of a chopstick. It has the advantage of being hard to control and gives me the awkward lines I love so much. The writing says: "The Word of the Lord is my Lifeline"

Below, you can see two more koinobori etegami out of the many I've painted in past years:

golden week

In Japan we are about to enter Golden Week, when four national holidays are concentrated in a period of seven days. The last of these holidays is Kodomo-no-hi (Children's Day, sometimes called Boy's Day) on May 5.

Traditionally the festival celebrates the healthy growth of boys --girls having been covered by the Hinamatsuri Festival on March 3, which is not a national holiday. It is celebrated with displays and food that symbolize strength, perseverance, and bravery. These symbols include ancient samurai helmets, the Japanese iris, kashiwa-mochi (sweet sticky rice wrapped in an oak leaf), chimaki (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves), and most famously, koinobori (carp-shaped windsocks) that are traditionally flown from flagpoles set up next to the house for that purpose. 

These etegami are works-in-progress, but I'll try to post a few completed versions soon. In the meantime, you might like to do a search on this blog for earlier etegami inspired by Children's Day. (Use the "search this blog" box in the sidebar).

class reunion (4)

You may remember that I had started a series of etegami depicting nostalgic scenes and items from Japan's Showa Period (1926–1989). Early Showa was a disturbing time of war and treachery, but by the time I was born, it was an optimistic age in which to grow up.

Former schoolmates of mine, from the international high school we all attended in Tokyo, have been getting together online to plan a major 70s decade reunion to take place in the United States this summer.

I can't attend, but I thought it would be nice to share in the spirit of the reunion by painting and posting etegami that evoke the feel of Japan in the 60s and 70s. That's what the earlier etegami in this series were all about. But I designed this particular etegami for the reunion itself. I'm hoping to print this image on small magnets or postcards, and ask for them to be handed out at the reunion as souvenirs.

The image is that of Koinobori, the carp-shaped windsocks that are flown from flagpoles or lines stretched across rivers and other open spaces to celebrate Kodomo no Hi (sometimes called Boy’s Day, but more often called Children’s Day), a festival held in Japan on May 5th. The carps represent the parents' desire for their children to grow up strong against adversity, like the legendary carp who swims against the current of the river and leaps up waterfalls to magically turn into a dragon. I’ve always thought the row of carps makes a wonderful image to represent people who are connected to each other. Like family or classmates.