Kites consist of a thin bamboo frame over which is affixed paper painted with one's own drawings. In case of a rectangular kite, strings are knotted at the four corners, which are then bundled at the center. One long string is pulled out from the bundle and the kite is completed.

We used to make our own kites. But nowadays, most of the kites we see are ready-made. Even during my childhood, western kites such as gala kites were already popular.

But why do we call them "tako"(homophone for the word meaning octopus) in Japanese? Picking up a piece of fried octopus( tako-no-karaage) and call it "the real tako-age"(note: phonetic expression "age" represents words meaning fry and fly). Oh, don't turn a cold shoulder on me for tossing off such a bum joke! But believe it or not, the "tako" of tako-age (kite flying) comes from octopus!

Why would octopus, living in the sea, fly up into the sky? Such would be of no surprise when we think of a Jumbo jet, big as a whale, flying up in the sky. But this term is well-grounded.

I mentioned that "tako" of tako-age (kite flying) comes from octopus. But to put it more precisely, it was ika (squid) May be some of you are feeling "don't try to belittle me!" but just think about it. Don't you think kites flying up in the sky resemble squids? Kites don't have ten tentacles. But many kites are equipped with two tapes that look like long tails. Maybe people imitated them as the two long tentacles of a squid. Details are not known but the original term of kite was ika (squid).

The culture of flying kites spread from western part of Japan. Ika-age that became popular in western region gradually spread eastward. When it reached the city of Edo, people thought "if they call it ika (squid) in the west, why not call it tako (octopus)", which lead us to today.

Such episode is of no big deal. But there is a region that calls kites as neither tako nor ika. Such is Nagasaki. In Nagasaki, they call kites as "hata". The hata culture of Nagasaki has a history of 500 years, and according to a record, an Indonesian who came to Dejima as an attendant on a Dutch was the one who brought kites into Nagasaki.

The hata of Nagasaki is a so-called "Kenkadako" (fighting kites) with glass powder pasted on its string. Hata-gassen (kite battles) held every early spring is one of the popular events of Nagasaki.

But why do they call a kite "a hata"? As the writer of this column, I just could not ignore this query.

So, I went to Nagasaki and did some research at the Nagasaki Kite Museum. Nothing definite was revealed but it seems that such term emerged from the fact that drawings on hatas were often used as the national flag or the designs of national flag was often drawn on hatas. Even today, many hatas have drawings of Hinomaru or the national flag of Netherlands.

People started calling kites hatas because it carried drawings of flags. Isn't it too easy? Flags are flags and they aren't kites. There also must have been drawings of designs other than flags. The term "hata" may have some other etymology.

So I returned to Nagasaki Kite Museum, and came upon an interesting fact. Hatas, the kites of Nagasaki, show a distinctive character not found in other kites. It is its structure. The frameworks of hatas of Nagasaki are all cross-shaped. Therefore , it has a diamond-shaped appearance.

When we talk of cross shapes in Nagasaki, we automatically think of the Cross, the symbol of Christianity. Nagasaki is said to be the place with the largest number of Christian churches in Japan. The term hata, representing kites of Nagasaki, may have derived from its cross-shaped framework.

The reason being that the Japanese started to call this symbol a cross only recently. Ever since antiquity, Japanese had been calling the cross "hata-mono". We can't deny the possibility that people of that time saw its cross-shaped framework and named it "hata-mono" after Christianity. "Hata-mono-age" (hatamono flying)was then shortened to "hata-age". Make any sense?

No one has ever referred to such theory. But I hereby would like to propose the "hata-age = hatamono-age" theory.

The cross shapes did exist in Japan even before the arrival of Christianity. The reason they called the cross, hatamono, derives from the wood frame of a weaving machine. But I personally suspect it relates to Hatazao ( flag pole).

Furthermore, I also suspect this hatamono had another meaning such as "something related to Hata-clan". Since Hata-clan were primitive Christian Jews, they did have knowledge of Jesus Christ and his Crucifixion and used the cross as some kind of symbol. People who saw its shape may have started to call the cross "hata-mono" to mean a symbol symbolizing Hata-clan.

I understand that there are many Matsuos in Nagasaki. Matsuo families of Nagasaki and Saga prefectures are of Hata-clan. Descendants of Hatas are still enjoying hata flying in Nagasaki. Is this some destiny...

Translated by Rie Ishida