ISRAEL: Japanese kite artist demonstrates his works at an Israeli festival

Record ID: 395915

  • Title: ISRAEL: Japanese kite artist demonstrates his works at an Israeli festival
  • Date: 3rd August 2008
  • Summary: JAPANESE KITE ARTIST MIKIO TOKI TALKING TO CHILDREN
  • Embargoed: 18th August 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA3U2YYL4YTOJ9MMHIYJC87DVY6
  • Story Text: Japanese kite master Mikio Toki flies his kites in an Israeli festival, painting the sky with lively colours.
    The skies of the northern Israeli city of Haifa were filled with colour on Saturday (August 2), as tens of residents participated in a Japanese traditional kite festival.
    The festival was organised by the Haifa Tikotin Museum for Japanese Art, which is currently hosting an exhibition of lively Edo kites by Japanese kite master Mikio Toki.
    Toki's kites, some measuring up to 3 meters in size, are made of bamboo or thin wood frames and covered with thin paper from mulberry bark, known also as "Washi paper". All the Edo kites in the exhibitions are painted, some with human figures of Sumo fighters, Kabuki theatre heroes and Buddhist monks.
    Each of Toki's kites is handmade, and is completed in a time period ranging from one day to one month.

    "I brought 60 kites, flag kites, that is because between Japan and Israel it's a 60 years anniversary," Toki told Reuters Television, as he was demonstrating kite-flying to local children.
    Kites are generally considered to be invented in China 2,000 years ago, and brought over to Japan, where they were embedded in local culture and believed to connect the heaven and the earth, the human and his gods. Kites in Japan were used as offerings to the gods, as children games in holidays and as a means of communication with distant places.

    "For Japan, kite we use it especially in the new year, it is one very important element to go closer to the heaven. And also it is for us to go back to the feeling of children, and also more to regain the childhood so to say. And this is the 60th anniversary of Israel, and we wanted to contribute in this way with some Japanese tradition," said Japanese ambassador to Israel Yoshinori Katori, who participated in the event.
    Today, kite flying is seen more as a children's amusement, but the kites themselves still hold their special and important place, as they help protect the heritage of old heroes, war stories and art techniques.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.
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