Kids Craft: KOINOBORI for Children's Day May 5th

KOINOBORI is carp streamers displayed outdoors around children's day on May 5th every year. Children's day was created in 1948 to "respect the individuality of children, strive for their happiness, and express gratitude to mothers." More on Children's day below, but first, the craft.

I am also an artist and I host kids' printmaking and craft workshops at local libraries during school holidays. This is a workshop I designed for April school holiday. For the workshops, I had pre-cut all the circles to save time. If your child/ren are small, please help them with cutting circles.

What You Need

A5 (half of A4/letter) piece of paper

Any paper cut into circles - for scales (mine were 3.5cm in diameter)

Any paper cut into circles - for eyes (mine were 2.5cm in diameter)

Paper Streamer

Glue

String (I used paper string)

Tape

Optional: Double sided tape to close the body

Steps

1. Mark with a line 1cm from one of the short end of the A5 paper. This is where the glue will be applied to make the body. Below I applied a strip of double-sided tape.

2. Decide and mark where eyes should go. Then glue on the eyes.

3. Starting at the tail end (opposite end from eyes) paste scales in rows overlapping a little.

4. Turn it over and attach streamers as a tail.

5. Apply glue on the short side where 1cm is indicated in step 1 (or uncover the double sided tape) and stick the body into a cylinder.

6. Stick a string on the mouth end of the fish with tapes.

What is Children's Day?

Why Carp? History or Koinobori

May 5th is also known as "Tango-no-Sekku 端午の節句" in Japan, which came from China, where it means "Tan 端" = beginning, of day of "Go 午" = horse. In Japanese, the sound "Go" also means the number 5 五, hence the 5th day of the 5th month was set as Tango no Sekku. The day was celebrated since Nara era (710-794), not as a children's day, but as a day to prevent illnesses and disasters.

Only in Edo period (1603-1868), Samurais started celebrating the day when a boy was born, spreading this tradition to civilians. After WWII, in 1948, the day was set to celebrate all children, as a Children's Day "Kodomo no hi."

The reason why carps are displayed, is based on a Chinese legend. The legend goes that any fish that climbs the Dragon Gate Falls in upper Yellow River will turn into a dragon. Among many fish that tried this, only carp made it, turned into a dragon and flew the skies. Because of this, carps are flown signifying hopes for children's success in life.

Koinobori displayed at a park near my hometown in Shizuoka.