FUKUSHIMA -- Colorful streamers featuring designs of carp and deities are traditionally displayed across Japan to celebrate Children's Day every May 5. In Sukagawa, Fukushima Prefecture, only one studio, Yoshinoya, makes the streamers and production is at its peak.
As artist Shuji Ono, 65, was making a streamer, he referenced the spread of infections with the new coronavirus, saying, "I want everyone to be able to live a healthy life."
Ono painted a striking figure on a streamer called Sukagawa Enobori, the origins of which apparently dates back to the Edo period (1603-1867). Back then, Aoudo Denzen, a painter retained by Shirakawa domain lord Matsudaira Sadanobu, drew on Japanese paper and cloth the figure of the Chinese diety known in Japan as Shoki to ward off evil. Legend has it that Shoki can help prevent illness and misfortune.
A big Sukagawa Enobori is about 6 meters long by 1.8 meters wide. It is often given as a gift to a family where a baby boy has been born.
Every year around this time, Ono said, he is busy working from early in the morning. On Thursday, he painted images of Shoki, as well as samurai and other popular figures, on streamers using 16 types of brushes and 12 different pigments.
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