Introduction

Fireworks, or hanabi (花火, “fire flower”), are an intrinsic part of summer life in Japan. It has long been integrated into culture and local traditions with hundreds of annual summer firework festivals held all over Japan. The most popular festivals include Tokyo Adachi Fireworks, Tokyo Sumida River Fireworks, and Osaka Tenjin Matsuri Hono Fireworks, as well as “Japan’s Three Great Firework Festivals,” the National Omagari Firework Festival in Akita, Tsuchiura National Firework Festival in Ibaraki, and Nagaoka Grand Firework Festival in Niigata. If you’ve ever visited Japan in the summer, there’s a good chance you’ve experienced a hanabi event at traditional festivals. But, how did fireworks become such an iconic symbol of Japanese summers?

To find the answer, first, we travel back to the origin of Japanese fireworks, learning the stories and history. Then, we’ll actually try making our own fireworks in Nagahama City, an area that helped give birth to Japanese fireworks!

A History of Hanabi

The origins of fireworks begin with the introduction of firearms to Japan via Kagoshima’s Tanegashima Island during the Warring States period (late 15th to 16th Century). This led to the emergence of domestic gunsmithing, first with the development of Japanese matchlocks which were then followed by gunpowder production. There was high demand for these early firearms while clans were warring, but as the Edo period (the early 17th – mid 19th) brought an age of peace to Japan, firearm production began decreasing. With their trade in decline, skilled gunsmiths made a transition to crafting fireworks, which would soon flourish as Japanese fireworks found their way into local traditions.

Early on, small hand-held fireworks dominated the industry, spreading out through society until the mid Edo period when the country faced famine and epidemics. In 1733, Tokugawa Yoshimune, Edo’s eighth Tokugawa Shogunate, ordered the first public firework display over Sumida River in memory of the deceased and to drive off the plague. Summer was the logical choice for such an event as it’s also the season of the Obon holiday, when families pay respects to ancestors who have passed. This is said to be the origin of the traditional summer fireworks, as well as to the present-day Sumida River firework festival. Following the first public firework display, other daimyo lords around the country began ordering gunpowder craftsmen to produce fireworks, helping hanabi culture to spread out from Edo (present-day Tokyo).

Kano Tadanobu, “Tokugawa Yoshimune”

In modern times, more sophisticated gunpowder-making technologies for fireworks were introduced by Western countries, resulting in dramatic improvements to the size and scale of displays. Hanabi were originally intended as memorial offerings and to ward off evil, as they were often connected with the religious rituals around obon season. But after WWII, many firework festivals began appearing all over the country as entertainment too, helping to cement their image as an integral part of summers in Japan.

Hanabi behind Hikone Castle, from Hikone Fireworks Festival.

Ties with Kunitomo Gunsmith

Let’s go back in time once more to revisit the firearms which preceded our fireworks. There were two main locations for firearm production: Sakai of Osaka, and Kunitomo of Nagahama. The latter of which was also known for bladesmithing back in the Muromachi period. Ashikaga Yoshiharu, a shogun of the era, learned that a gun had made its way into Tanegashima from Portugal in 1544, and instantly ordered a skilled blacksmith of Kunitomo named Kunitomo Zenbē to begin producing firearms. From this time onward, Kunitomo established itself along with Sakai as the two major production centers until the Edo era ushered in an age of peace.

Old written records, at Kunitomo Teppo Museum

When the country was unified under Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Shogunate of the Edo Government, firearm demand dropped significantly. The skills of gunsmithing began to be applied to other industries such as metalworking and fireworks. Gunsmiths of Kunitomo also made this transition and became key figures of hanabi culture.

Holding a late period matchlock, at Kunitomo Teppo Museum

Kunitomo Teppo Museum (Japanese Only)

Kakinoki Hanabi – Upholding the Kunitomo Legacy

There is still today a firework craftsman in Nagahama maintaining the Kunitomo tradition. Kakinoki Hiroyuki, who has received various awards for his hanabi at firework competitions, such as the famous Omagari Fireworks Festival in Daisen City of Akita. In recent years, he’s been working on new developments with fireworks such as eco-friendly types made with biodegradable plastics that return safely to nature.

Kakinoki Hanabi, making fireworks as well as selling small consumer fireworks.

His grandfather, Eiichi, first opened their factory in 1960, inheriting a local factory that was closing down, after having spent time apprenticing under Hirooka Kotaro, a well-known firework craftsman from the area. Kakinoki-san is now the third-generation master to lead his family’s business.

According to Kakinoki-san, there are currently less than 400 firework companies in Japan. But his company, Kakinoki Hanabi (柿木花火), is among the increasingly few which still produce domestically due to dangers of handling fire and combustibles around modern communities. The Kunitomo legacy produced a few more local factories here that carried on their tradition long ago, but today, Kakinoki-san is the only remaining producer in the area, and one of just a small few in the entire Kansai region.

Browsing consumer hanabi inside the shop.

Kakinoki Hanabi (Japanese Only)

Hanabi Handmaking Experience

For a hands-on hanabi experience, we visited the actual production factory of Kakinoki Hanabi, located in a forest, separated a ways from their store. After a safety lecture and brief explanation of the internal device mechanisms, it was time to make some actual fireworks.

Kakinoki Hanabi Factory

While the majority of globally produced fireworks are packed in cylindrical shells, hanabi come with a round shell that produces a spherical display on explosion. There are several types of fireworks, but the “warimono” 割物type is most common, seen in large concentric ring-like formations often described as chrysanthemums, peony, etc.

Hanabi shells contain two types of core compounds, known as hoshi (“star”, 星) and warikayaku (gunpowder, 割火薬). Hoshi are gunpowders including elements that glow in the air, while warikayaku is a gunpowder that serves strictly as a strong propellant for the hoshi. When fireworks go up, the wariyaku ignite first, followed by the hoshi as the explosion begins. Flame reaction occurs and spreads out in a spherical shape, appearing as a beautiful flower blooming in the night sky. As spectators, what we see is the glowing afterimage of light created by the traces of exploding hoshi.

Firework ball cross section. Ball color demonstrates the flame color.

The bigger the shell, the bigger the fireworks as the amount of gunpowder increases. Sizes are given according to the circular shell diameter, which also indicates the firework size when exploded. For our visit, we made the smallest size-3 shell.

First of all, we chose a color for our fireworks. Hoshi gunpowder sets were available for a variety of colors, such as red, white, pink, purple, etc. Participants of the workshop could choose their favorite color.

The colors of the fireworks are caused by flame reaction of metals or other compounds included in the hoshi. So depending on the color-developing agent added to the powder, the various colored hoshi can be produced. As an aside, until the Edo period, hanabi were actually monochromatic, a dark red color. In the early Meiji period, coloring agents began being imported from overseas, allowing for colored fireworks which then became popular.

We then packed layers of hoshi balls and pebble-like warikayaku. The process was more challenging than expected, perhaps due to the deep concave surface of the shell’s hemispheres we were working to fill. Despite the challenge, it was a fun process, filled with the curiosity of trying to imagine the final result when they would explode in the sky.

How you fill the shell will ultimately determine the quality of the display. Skillful masters like Kakinoki-san fill much larger shells with thousands of balls of gunpowder. He explained that he carefully packs them while envisioning the features of the end result such as shape and timing of the colorization.

Our firework balls are complete! After fine-tuning and preparations, we are excitedly approaching the moment of truth when we get to see our fireworks in action!

Hanabi master, Kakinoki-san (left)

Viewing Our Creation from the Lake

For this day’s activity, we were treated to a special launch of the fireworks over Lake Biwa, and we took a ferry from Hikone Port, to enjoy our own fireworks which would launch back toward the shore. We boarded on time to the sightseeing ferry which usually takes visitors around Lake Biwa’s historic Chikubu Island and Take Island.

After about a 20-minute ride out from Hikone Port, we stopped at a certain point, and in front of us, we could see the small illuminated figure of Hikone Castle. It was now dark enough to begin, and we were treated to a 10-minute firework show of 200 fireworks including our own creations.

The participants’ fireworks were the first to launch, one by one, each preceded by announcement of the participant’s name along with a short message that each of us prepared during the workshop. I enjoyed with excitement and anticipation as my turn approached.

It formed a beautifully round shape that exceeded my expectation, and it was amazing just having the chance to see my own handcrafted firework on the lake. It was fun to see the distinct unique colors and shapes that resulted from each of our works. After the fireworks of all participants were finished, we enjoyed about 5 more minutes of fireworks prepared by Kakinoki Hanabi. Fireworks illuminating the night sky over Lake Biwa was a beautiful sight to behold. This experience was a wonderfully special way to learn about the tradition of Japanese fireworks while experiencing everything first-hand!