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| JS Noshiro's ship crest or logo mark. Image : JMSDF |
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ( JMSDF ) had just unveiled the ship emblem of its third Mogami-class multi-mission stealth frigate the JS Noshiro ( FFM-3 ). It was the result of a design competition which was open to the public from 24th Feb to 25th Mar 2022. The winning piece was selected by the pre-commissioning ship crew themselves and it featured a mythical creature known as the shachihoko which has the head of a tiger and the body of a fish.
The shachihoko is a well known cultural entity in Noshiro City, Akita Prefecture. It is found adorning the top of gigantic castle floats which are lighted up at night and paraded in the streets to celebrate the Tanabata Festival which is usually held in early August every year.
In Japanese, the ship's crest or emblem is known as the logo mark ( ロゴマーク rogo maku ). My previous articles on the JS Mogami and the JS Kumano's logo mark can be found here and that of the JS Ise's possibly plagiarised logo mark here.
Noshiro
The JS Noshiro was named after the Noshiro River ( 能代川 noshirogawa ) in Akita Prefecture. For most of its 136km course, this Class A river is actually known as the Yoneshiro River ( 米代川 yoneshirogawa ). It has its source in the Ou Mountains of the Hachimantai Plateau and flows westwards to the Sea of Japan.
At the end of its journey to the sea, the Yoneshiro River reaches the city of Noshiro and that last section near the river mouth is commonly known as the Noshiro River.
Noshiro City has a population of just under 50000 and is most famously known for the way its people celebrated the Tanabata Festival with giant lantern castle floats that seemed to reach up to the summer night sky. These humongous structures are assembled with the help of construction cranes and the biggest ever built measured 24.1m in height. Their sides would be painted with pictures depicting anything from fauna to flora, folks going through their daily chores such as fishing, farming and wood cutting, battlefield scenes and the top of the structures would invariably be adorned with several prominent pairs of shachihokos - the fearsome looking Japanese tiger fish that is commonly found on the roof top of a castle's main keep.
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| Noshiro City's Lantern Castle with Shachihoko. Photo : Noshiro City Official WP |
Tanabata has its origins from the ancient Chinese Cowherd and Weaver Girl folk tale. It is said that a long time ago, on the eastern bank of the Celestial River lived Orihime ( 織姫 ) a talented weaver girl who was the daughter of the Heavenly Emperor. She would create colourful fabric for the clouds in the skies day in and day out. However, she eventually got tired of this monotonous life and the Emperor, having taken pity on her, married her to Hikoboshi ( 彦星 ) the cowherd from the western bank.
The cowhead and the weaver girl loved each other and lived a blissful marriage life. With their new found happiness Orihime subsequently neglected her weaving duties and Hikoboshi stopped tending his herd. That angered the Heavenly Emperor. He separated the couple and confined them to the opposite sides of the Celestial River and only allowed them to meet once a year on the seven day of the seventh month. It is said that the magpies are so touched by the loving bond between the cowherd and the weaver girl that they would form a bridge across the Celestial River on that evening for the annual reunion of the couple over the river.
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| Tanabata : Orihime and Hikoboshi on magpie bridge. Image : Anhellica |
Today, we can still see the characters of this ancient legend immortalised in the summer night sky. The Celestial River is the Milkyway Galaxy which stretches across the sky like a silvery flow of water. The cowherd is represented by the bright star Altair in the constellation of Aquila on one side of the Milkyway while on the other side lies the even brighter weaver star Vega in the constellation of Lyra. The Chinese believed that if a woman prayed to the Weaver Star on that night, she would receive wisdom and also agility and dexterity, characteristics that could go a long way in maintaining a blissful marriage.
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| Vega and Altair and the Milkyway ( light blue zone ) in the summer night sky. Image : In-the-sky.org |
In Japan, Tanabata ( 七夕 ) which literally means the evening of the seventh, is at times celebrated on the 7th of July ( Gregorian calendar ) but traditionally it would be the seventh day of the seventh month on the Japanese lunisolar calender which meant that day would be some time in August. It is also known as the Star Festival ( 星祭り hoshi matsuri ) and is observed not just in Noshiro City alone but everywhere across the country. However each region has its own way of celebrating this festival, like Sendai City with its Tanabata decorations made from paper and bamboo hanging in the streets and fireworks show.
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| Tanabata decorations of Sendai City. Photo : Rakuten Travel |
Noshiro's unique towering lantern castles was an age old tradition that dated back to the Edo period. During the Tenpo era ( 1830 -1844 ), a lantern float was made in the image of the Nagoya Castle and it proved to be popular. It had been created almost every year since then. There is photographic proof that during the Meiji era, there existed a lantern that measured 17.6m in height and 5.4m in width. However with the rapid industrialisation and electrification of Japan, street level electric cables limited the height of the lantern castles to about 7 to 8m. In recent years, the electric cables along Noshiro City's Route 101 were buried underground and the city started on a project to restore the gigantic castle floats to their original size in 2012 with the aim to promote tourism.
The following year, a castle float measuring exactly 17.6m was crafted based on the Meiji era photo and was named Karoku, in the memory of an Edo period carpenter Miyakoshi Karoku ( 宮腰嘉六 ) who had worked on the lanterns, thus reviving a century-old tradition. In 2014, an even taller record breaking castle float was created measuring 24.1m in height. It was named Chikasue, after the Sengoku era warlord Ando Chikasue ( 安東愛季 ) who ruled northern Dewa Province from the Hiyama Castle located at Noshiro.
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| Revived after more than a century : Lantern Castle "Karoku" 17.6m Photo : noshirotanabata.com |
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| Tallest in Japan : Lantern Castle " Chikasue " 24.1m Photo : noshirotanabata.com |
When night fell, the lantern castles were lit and paraded in the streets and the people chanted, danced and sang amidst the sound of taiko drums, cymbals and flutes as they pulled the floats around the city. These visually stunning illuminated floats are known as the Sky Castle That Never Sleeps ( 天空の不夜城 tenku no fuyajo ).
You can watch Noshiro's 2015 Tanabata Festival from demonstration footage used on Sharp's Aquos 4K TVs here or below.
This video here or below by Akita Shirakami Tourism shows the entire assembly process of castle floats " Chikasue " and " Karoku " in time lapse.
The Shachihoko
The shachihoko is a mythical animal that has the head of a tiger and the body of a carp. It is almost always depicted facing the sky with its tail curled above its head. It is believed to have the power to cause the rain to fall and is therefore frequently found as a roof ornament on top of temples and castles which are mainly constructed of wood to protect them from fire.
The kanji or Chinese-styled character for the shachihoko is 鯱. It is made up of two distinct components 魚 ( fish ) and 虎 ( tiger ). So even in kanji it means tiger fish. We also frequently encounter it written in katagana form as シャチホコ.
Shachihokos are found all over Japan and not just in Noshiro City alone. Some shachihoko installed on a castle's tenshukaku or main keep can be huge, like those of the Nagoya Castle in Aichi Prefecture which inspired Noshiro's lantern floats. The shachihoko on top of the Chikasue lantern castle has a length of 5m while that of the Karoku measured 3m which means they are absolutely massive, making them instantly recognisable motifs of Noshiro City.
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| Multiple shachihokos on top of lantern float Chikasue's tenshukaku. Photo : noshirotanabata.com |
Four days ago a life-sized replica of Nagoya Castle's golden shachihoko or kin shachihoko was displayed at the central plaza of Hokkaido's New Chitose Airport Terminal 2 ( domestic terminal ) in a publicity blitz for tourism. It stands at more than 3m in height and is covered with more than 1800 pieces of gold foil! You can have an idea of its size when you compare it with the cabin attendents standing next to it. The kin shachihoko will be on display until 19th Aug 2022.
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| Life-size replica : Nagoya Castle's Golden Shachikiko at Hokkaido's New Chitose Airport T2. Photo : Kyodoshi |
JS Noshiro's Logo Mark
According to JMSDF, the sachihoko is undoubtedly the guardian deity of Noshiro City's lantern castles. By incorporating it in the emblem of JS Noshiro, it is hoped that the shachihoko will similarly watch over the safety of the frigate and by extension be the protector of the entire Japanese nation and its people as well.
The rim of the emblem is supposed to represent " team effort " as the multi-mission frigates go on a crew-based manning system. JMSDF plans to rotate four teams of crew for every three frigates.
It was designed by Tadokoro Toshitake ( 田所俊威 ) of Saitama Prefecture.
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