Official
It flutters in the blue sky
During the Edo period, samurai families had a custom at the Boy's Festival to decorate armor helmets and warrior dolls in hopes of healthy growth for children, and to raise banners in the garden.
In houses of common people other than samurai families, carp streamers can now be set up instead of flag banners. It is said that the powerful appearance of the carp in the heavens of Hiroshige's work symbolizes the reconstruction of that time.
The main carp streamers in the Edo period were black koi. Nowadays, you can see colorful carp streamers mixed with black, red, and blue.
The carp streamer fried in the precincts of Suitengu was swimming vigorously in the sky.
◆Suiten-gu Shrine
2-4-1, Nihonbashikakigaracho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
◆"Suidobashi Surugadai" in "Hundred Views of Edo" by Hiroshige Utagawa
From the National Diet Library Digital Collection