An artisan adds a finishing touch on a "koinobori" carp streamer at the workshop Takagi in the Osaka Prefecture city of Sakai's Nishi Ward, March 13, 2025. Production of traditional hand-painted koinobori for Children's Day on May 5 has reached its peak at this dedicated factory. Streamers of various sizes including ones measuring about 9 meters are crafted using a hand-painting technique that is now scarcely found across Japan. This method, passed down since the early Meiji era (1868-1912), involves the use of pigments and custom-made brushes without any preliminary sketching. With changing housing trends, there has been a growing demand for smaller, indoor streamers. Takeshi Takada, the 70-year-old sixth-generation artisan at the workshop, commented, "I want to carry forward the wishes imbued in the koinobori for the future while preserving tradition."

(Japanese original by Takashi Murata, Osaka Photo and Video Department)