Giant Kites. This enthusiast waits for the kite-fighting to end before hoisting his kite into the air. Some of these colourful kites are as much as 8 feet tall and they fly too !

The Japanese seem to have as many different types of kites as Jamaicans have dance-styles. Or so it seems after a visit to the Ikazaki Kite Museum, in Ehime Prefecture. The museum has more than 400 different types of kites from all parts of Japan. Because many of the kites are very colourful, it sometimes feels more like visiting an art gallery than a museum. Many of the kites actually feature intricate paintings depicting scenes from folk tales or ancient samurai heroes as well as historical incidents famous in Japanese history.

In much the same way that different regions of Japan have their own unique udon noodle soup recipes, they often also have their own unique kite designs. The variety is staggering and amazing. There are animal and insect-shaped kites, including bees, cicadas, owls, crows, frogs that seem to jump in flight, butterflies ahose wings flap, fish that seem to swim through the air, horses, dogs and even ancient dragons that seem to breathe fire as they fly ! There are kites shaped like human faces which have round coin-like flaps for eyes. These spin and hum in flight giving an appearance of opening and closing eyes. Many kites have little flaps that blow in the air to produce a nice humming sound, but there are some in Japan that have little whistles attached to them that sing as they fly through the skies delighting many, annoying a few. There are even kites shaped like fans which seem to defy physics and fly, sometimes without even a stabilising tail.

The Ikazaki Kite museum is full of kites and trivia relating to the world's simplest man-made flying objects. Ikazaki is also home to the centuries old, annual Ikazaki Kite Festival and its famous kite fighting competition.

Shogi is a traditional Japanese game with several game pieces sometimes compared to chess, perhaps not surprisingly, there are shogi-shaped kites. Others are shaped like kimonos, the traditional dresses worn only for ceremonial and special occasions in modern Japan.
Watching these kites in flight stirs the imagination of children and creative types. Because they are often painted and coloured exactly like real kimono dresses, seeing a group of these 'kimonos' in flight has been likened to watching invisible ghost women in the skies. Some kites are mostly associated with special occasions and ceremonies. So there are kites flown by families at New Year's to invoke prosperity and good luck. There are special kites flown when babies are born aimed at ensuring them success in life. And there are even kites which are given to friends to fly if they are suffering bad luck at certain times in their lives.

Ikazaki is a rural town famous for its annual kite festivals and particularly for its fighting kite battles. These kite 'wars' have been taking place here for over 400 years, and the fact that some teams compete in traditional clothes definitely adds to the occasion. This connection to the past is probably one of the reasons why the Kite Museum was set up here in the first place. For a moment it's easy to imagine yourself carried by time machine back to the days when samurai warriors and geishas were common. There have been times when as many as 1,000 teams turn up to compete in the kite fighting. The last group with their kite intact and flying, is declared the champion team.

Thousands of people from all over the world converge on the large field across the river and opposite the museum to fly kites, admire original kite designs, buy kites and most of all to watch the intriguing spectacle of kite-fighting battles. Two-man teams pull giant kites from one end of the field to the next, trying to entangle opponents' kites and cut them loose.
This is achieved by way of strategically placed knives on the kite strings, and the operators attempt to position their strings and knives while avoiding similar contraptions on the opposing kites. Usually there is a quick tugging or sawing motion of the strings and within seconds one or other kite flutters to the ground, butterfly-like in defeat.

The fighting kites are huge and colourful. Most seem to be at least five feet in length, which is why they need two men to operate them. Rather than flying the kites, teams run pulling the kites behind them. The kites do fly by themselves once they're in the air, but as each kite is cut down, teams remaining reel in their kites and run again at the other competitors trying to tangle up their lines, and use the kite or string-mounted knives to cut other kites away. The whole thing can take over an hour if there are many competitors, but the individual battles tend to be fairly swift and losers tend to appear good-natured about their losses.
Nowadays the kite festivals often feature teams that are sponsored by Japanese companies. So the uniforms or kites themselves may sometimes feature small advertising messages on them. These are usually discrete and limited to a "sponsored by ..." statement. In some ways it typifies an impression that many visitors have of Japan - thoroughly modern but still traditional. The kite-fighting and costumes are old, but there are adaptations made for modernity. While the kite battles are what visitors to the festival find most exciting, the Ikazaki Kite Festival is also a time of celebration for families with young children.

It's held in May on the day set aside as Children's Day in Japan. On this day families set up special diplays and pray for the future happiness of children born the year before. At Ikazaki many of the kites are flown in honour of children. The child's name and good wishes are usually painted on the kites flown for them. This too is a tradition dating back in time.

Kites have been used to ward off evil in several other ancient societies as well.
A famous American diplomat and forefather, used a kite in a famous experiment once. He flew a kite with a key attached to it during a thunderstorm. When lightening hit the kite and went through the string to light up the dangling key, he showed dramatically the effects of atmospheric electricity. School teachers always remind children not to try replicating this experiment because they could possibly be electrocuted or shocked.

In modern times kites are mostly used for children's recreation especially around Easter time in Jamaica, when the winds tend to be flying. They are being used in new sports like kite boarding, which is a combination of surfboarding and kiting. The surfer holds onto a kite which allows him to fly into the sky while being pulled by a motor boat. Some surfers do away with the motor boat and fly along with wind power alone, attaining scary heights sometimes. Water skiers have also used kites to add a thrill to their sport, but usually remain tethered to the motor boats pulling them. There have been experiments using kites to power boats instead of traditional sails. Many youngsters have discovered this principle and use kites to pull them downriver or in the sea while they float on their backs in the water. Modern advances in aerodynamic and the use of strong synthetic materials have some transportation engineers looking again at kites as a way to cheaply power vehicles across land, water, deserts and snowbound areas.

There are competitive kite flying competitions around the world and even trick-flying displays. These attract huge audiences and media coverage. New types of kites have been designed as well. There are now huge kites that look like cloth wings, controlled by two or more control lines - highly manoeuvrable - some will fly in almost no wind. There are also circular tubes that are called rotor kites that have a rotating inside device providing lift as the wind sails over it.
With world tourism on a rebound, maybe it's time to revisit the idea of an international kite festival in Jamaica as an attraction for locals and visitors again. Displays of kites from around the world will delight and inspire local kite makers. Maybe one day we'll even see Jamaican and Caribbean kite works of art comparable to those ancient takos (Japanese for kite) being displayed at the Ikazaki Kite Museum in Shikoku, Japan.

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