ChiramiHanabi: why fireworks are fire flowers in Japanese (花火)
Hanabi (花火) is the Japanese word for fireworks. Its two kanji are about as simple as kanji get: 花, flower, and 火, fire. A firework is a flower made of fire, opening for a second in the night sky and then falling away. In Japan, hanabi mean summer: big displays over rivers and bays on warm evenings, and small sparklers held in your hand.
What the kanji say
花 (hana, ka) is a flower. On top is 艹, the grass radical that crowns many plant kanji, and underneath is 化 (ka), which gives the sound. 化 also means “to change”, so a handy way to remember 花 is a plant that changes into a flower.
火 (hi, ka) is fire. It began as a drawing of flames, and you can still see them: a tall flame in the middle, with sparks flying off on each side.
Flower fire, or fire flower?
The video calls fireworks “flowers of fire”, and that’s the picture. Strictly, though, a Japanese compound puts its main word last, so 花火 is “flower fire”: a kind of fire that looks like a flower. Swap the kanji round and you get a different word, 火花 (hibana), “fire flower”, which means a spark. So in Japanese, fireworks are fire that blooms, and sparks are the tiny flowers that fire throws off.
Fireworks in Japan
Japan’s oldest written mention of fireworks is in a courtier’s diary from 1447. In 1659 a fireworks maker called Kagiya opened in Edo, today’s Tokyo, and it’s still in business. In 1810 one of its clerks was allowed to branch out on his own, and founded Tamaya. At the summer river festival on the Sumida River the two split the sky between them, Tamaya upstream and Kagiya downstream, and the crowds cheered by shouting their names. People still call out たまや！ (tamaya) and かぎや！ (kagiya) when a big one bursts. Tamaya itself lasted only one generation: in 1843 a fire broke out there and spread through the neighbourhood, the shop’s property was seized, and its owner was banished from Edo.
Today most big fireworks displays, 花火大会 (hanabi taikai), take place in July and August, and many people go in a yukata, a light cotton kimono for summer.
How to use it
花火を見に行こう！
Hanabi o mi ni ikou!
Let's go and see the fireworks!
今夜、花火大会があるよ。
Kon'ya, hanabi taikai ga aru yo.
There's a fireworks display tonight.
浴衣で花火大会に行きました。
Yukata de hanabi taikai ni ikimashita.
I went to the fireworks in a yukata.
庭で線香花火をした。
Niwa de senkou hanabi o shita.
We did sparklers in the garden.
- 花火を見る (hanabi o miru) is watching a display; 花火をする (hanabi o suru) is lighting small fireworks yourself.
- 線香花火 (senkou hanabi), “incense-stick fireworks”, are tiny sparklers: a twist of paper or a thin stick tipped with powder. The powder melts into a glowing ball that spits out little sparks.
- 打ち上げ花火 (uchiage hanabi) are the big shells launched into the sky.
Words with the same kanji
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 花火大会 | hanabi taikai | fireworks display |
| 線香花火 | senkou hanabi | small sparklers |
| 火花 | hibana | spark |
| 花見 | hanami | flower viewing, cherry blossom parties |
| 花束 | hanataba | bouquet |
| 火山 | kazan | volcano |
Remember it
Plant a flower (花), set it alight (火), and watch it bloom across the sky, just long enough for someone to shout たまや！
The kanji in this lesson
Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.