In many parts of the world it is customary to enjoy, in the course of summertime holydays, amazing fireworks lighting up the night sky with bursts of shining colours. The “fire blossoms” (hanabi), according to the way the Japanese call them, are originated from China following the invention of gunpowder, but in Japan they later had a special meaning in line with the Japanese sensitivity to nature and the transient destiny of the tangible reality (mono-no-aware). Likewise the flowers, indeed, fireworks reveal a fugitive beauty, and it’s as if they rather invite to fully appreciate the true joys. It’s kind of like the ukiyo-e spirit: no escape from, but immersion in the worldly matter till one can take pleasure. This because life itself is short: according to Hiroshige’s “Ryōgoku Hanabi” print, included in the series entitled “One hundred famous views of Edo”, life is represented under the symbolic form of an upwardly directed firework that backs down after having reached any given height in the sky. In this connection, it’s easy to evoke the Horatian “carpe diem” , of course rather in the sense of appreciating what one has than inviting to pursuit of pleasure.
Hiroshige, Fireworks at Ryôgoku (Ryôgoku hanabi), from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1858
The print represents the celebrations on the Sumidagawa River, near the Ryōgoku bridge in Edo, which took place from the twenty-eighth day of the fifth month (opening of the summer season) until the beginning of autumn. Under the mantle of the night, of a deep blue, the waters of the river are illuminated by the flashes of light. The fireworks could be admired both from the restaurant terraces and from the boats on the river, also enjoying the cool of the evening. The boats depicted by Hiroshige, illuminated by lanterns, with their parties and entertainment are the symbol of the floating world, a world of pleasures suspended on the current, between sky and river, life and death. The luminous rocket projected into the night, in its uniqueness, evokes the melancholy of a solitary life. Even the representation of the spectators gathered on the bridge, with a thousand faces without identity, expresses a sense of solitude in anonymity. The woodblock has been wiped to give a blurry effect to the explosion of bright stars in the sky.
Kobayashi Kiyochika, Fireworks at Ike-no-hata
The firework art developed in the Edo eve (1615-1868), during which Japan enjoyed peace. In the early stages, fireworks were authorized by the shogun in order to both celebrate the end of a famine and pray to the gods of water that epidemic diseases spreading was avoided (Edo, currently Tokyo, was sitting on a number of rivers and marshes). The restaurants were having a contest of their best artworks. A pair of artwork manufacturers, notably Tamaya and Kagiya, used competing with each other in looking for more and more innovative and impressing solutions. As an example, the Japanese were exactly those who came up with the characteristic peony- or chrysanthemum-shaped artworks, which look like they blossom with bright colors against the velvety background of the sky.
In Japan, the fireworks even now take place every year in July and August. The spectators amass in the parks, gardens, streets and have delicacies (a sort of fried pasta, chicken skewers, grilled octopus nuggets) while are wearing light kimono and confidently handling traditional fans. Among about seven thousand performances, the most popular are those referred to as Sumidagawa and Miyajima, which are respectively held in Tokyo and the province of Hiroshima.
The best artwork representations are those accommodated in the ukiyo-e, in which a spectator is captured while he is on a boat, a bridge or the banks of a river, and looks at a firework. The external viewer cannot go uninvolved in the same ineffable emotion that firework spectator shows to feel.
Takahashi Hiroaki (Shôtei),The Pine Tree of Success on the Sumida River, 1936 ca.
Copyright © arteingiappone – All rights reserved
For more detailed illustration of firework in the Japanese art, see D. Liu-Brennan-M. Bryce, Japanese Fireworks (Hanabi): The Ephemeral Nature and Symbolism, in The International Journal Of The Arts In Society, vol. 4, n. 5, 2010, http://www.arts-journal.com.