I would like to introduce 青いこいのぼりプロジェクト
Do you remember Tsuami which hit Tohoku in Japan on March 11, 2011? The earthquake was far beyond the size of warning. There were so many child victims too. May 5 is a national holiday. It’s children’s day. Also boy’s festival. households who have boys clelbrate for their sons.
There are Koinobori up in the yard.Koinobori is a carp shape streamer and it’s a symbol of a family, a symbol of martial spirit, strength, wish for success, health, and happiness.
https://www.pinterest.jp/pin/558446422526126039/?lp=true How to make Origami Koinobori.
Here’s a link, This article is a copy from this site https://www.ryukoutengoku.info/kibounotsuzumi/ritsu.html# BLUE CARP PROJECT
English
On March 11, 2011 at 2:46 PM the Tohoku region of Japan was hit with a magnitude 9 earthquake, followed shortly
by a great Tsunami that swept away many cities along with many lives.
I was in Sendai, about 60 miles away, with my father and brother, and was away from the dangers of the tsunami. However, my home town, a harbor city, 60 miles north of Sendai, was not.
Shortly after the great tsunami, my 5 year old youngest brother Ritsu’s body was found. My mother, grand father and grand mother were missing.
“This is a bad dream and I need to wake up.” I repeated to myself as I dug through the pile of the mud where our house once was. That was all I could do to bear the passing of time but that was when I found a Blue Carp flag (Koinobori)
I thought, “Ritsu wants to raise his Koinobori on the Boy’s Day celebration”. Koinobori are a symbol of boys’ prosperity and healthy growth in Japan, and I remembered how much Ritsu loved the May 5th Boy’s Day celebration. I continued to dig, and found 3 more flags – to complete the Carp family, set of 4.
I took the flags to the river and washed the mud away from them, then found a pole to raise them for my lost family members.
“Ritsu, this is for you”, I whispered as I anchored the flag poles. The Koinobori started to swim gracefully in the sky, free and unencumbered, above the massive muddy pile of debris.
Legend has it that a Koinobori became a dragon when it continued to swim up and reach for heaven.
Blue Carp flags represent children, while a black one is the Father and the red one, Mother. It became my mission to collect and raise as many blue carp flags as possible for all the children who were lost in this tragedy. I wanted them to sail freely in the limitless sky.
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This letterwas the beginning of the Blue Koinobori Project. Kento Ito was 17 years old when this mail went viral on internet and brought many people together to this project. The blue koinobori were sent in from all around Japan, from Hokkaido to Okinawa. On the May 5th, Boy’s Day, volunteers gathered from local cities and from Southern Japan to his hometown.
It’s been three years since the Great Tohoku Earthquake. We believe that we must to continue on with the Blue Koinobori Project, to keep giving hope to children who survived, while honoring the children who are no longer with us, and also to all the children who are facing natural disasters.
No matter where we are, we share one sky – and through this sky, we are all connected.
Though the Tohoku earthquake will become a the thing of the past, we have learned the force of nature, the compassion of people, and to never take any day for granted.
We don’t want to forget or to put away the lessons we learned as just part of a history but to pass the story along with a hopeful outlook to the next generation.
We are looking forward to raising our blue koinobori into the wide blue sky of California to honor those who were lost in Tohoku and to all the children of the world.