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Japanese Kites
Ikanobori

Edo-period kites were spectacular objects, the embodiment of playfulness. Kites (also referred to as tako) may symbolize good luck or represent prayers for good fortune, literally raised before the gods. Kites made for traditional festivals often bear the images of celestial beings such as dragons and demons.

The massive calligraphy kite (jidako), suspended at the top of the East Building staircase for the exhibition, is of a type developed in the late eighteenth century, at the time of a great famine, when the shogun forbade any extravagant display of wealth. Earlier kites were often decorated ostentatiously, some even with gold and silver studs. Dragon, crane, and wind god kites are also displayed. Kites such as the yakkodako, in the form of a foot soldier (yakko) wearing a colorful sash and sword, were popular during the Edo period. These comic kites mocked the low-ranking samurai who often bullied the townspeople. Master kite makers Toki Mikio and Kashima Tatsuro will be in residence at the Gallery, constructing and decorating yakkodako in view of the public.

Kite battles (tako gassen) attracted huge crowds in the Edo period, when kite flying was a favorite pastime of the townspeople. Skilled kite handlers fought fierce battles in the skies until the glass attached to the strings of one kite severed the strings of the other. During the Gallery’s Edo Festival experienced kite battlers Watanabe Shingo and Suzuki Hiroshi, with local volunteers, will stage tako gassen on the Mall, weather permitting, as part of Edo Kite Flying Day. The event is directed by Modegi Masaaki, owner of the Kite Museum, Tokyo, and Scott Skinner, Drachen Foundation, Seattle.

November 4 to November 10, 1998
Kite Masters Residency
East Building atrium

November 7, 1998 • 12:00
Tako Gassen (Kite Battle) and Edo Kite Flying Day
Mall between 3rd and 4th Streets

Rain Date
November 8, 1998 • 12:00
Tako Gassen