Hanabi in Japan

Here’s one I forgot all about writing until I came across the pictures. The Japanese love their fireworks – especially on those warm, summer evenings. The word for fireworks, hanabi, means “flowers of fire” and they have truly developed gorgeous displays; the colors, the patterns, the size are all spectacular and are well worth seeking out. They have huge displays that would rival anything I’ve ever seen on the 4th of July.
We had the opportunity to watch a small, local firework display and I have to admit, the process of “shooting off” the fireworks was worth watching! Let me see if I can describe it for you (the night pictures, of course, did not do the process justice).
First, you must recognize that this was the local version…the small stuff. Our small fireworks that we purchase and shoot off in our front yards (with prominent caution warnings attached to each sparkler) seem SO tame. 2nd…don’t do this at home….
OK…imagine a small park..roughly the size of a small block. Trees around, open spot in the middle, bathroom on one side. The fire department (I’m guessing that’s who they were – they looked official) sets out a “runway” of some material that doesn’t seem to catch fire. There’s also a small, movable “wall” of the same material that is nearby (men kinda hang out behind it but ya know, they also just wander around it too). OK…now….imagine a woven basket…maybe it’s like 3 feet tall...with a handle on it. Yes, woven out of some plant – most likely bamboo since it’s available everywhere here (oh, it’s flammable you say…just wait). The audience (being smarter) sits outside this cleared area, perched on the outer edge of the park. Meanwhile…a group of men (remember the ones hanging out around that movable wall?) well…one of the fire type people walk over with a burning torch, poke it in the basket until it catches fire and then they run back over to the wall…one of the young men (in, of course, the very tight fitting outfit) walks over and picks up said burning wicker basket, set themselves into a very nice back stance, and hold the basket close to their side while the basket is spewing sparks, burning brightly, the sparkling fire cascading into the sky, complete with a deafening roar but the jock just stands there until it burns out. (Once again, I repeat, don’t try this at home.) They didn’t do this once or twice, they spent over an hour doing it over and over again. I think there might have been some competition…who had the best stance or stood the stillest or became the deafest or got burned the most (or least). Who knows.