A Little Bird Told me

Something I feel like I have been seeing a lot of recently, especially in Kyoto, is this little cute bird called chidori, 千鳥.

You might think that this is just an original drawing of just any bird by a kid, but apparently it is based on the plover. The sub-seagull bird that sort of resembles sand pipers roaming the Japan's, and the rest of the world's, shores looking for easy watery targets for their next meal. 

Evidently there is in fact some interesting, and as always in most Japanese culture, and exaggerated meaning to this specific bird. 

Well before we get into that, let me do a little background, Japan is pretty notorious for their onomatopoeia words. They have them for everything. For example, zaza is the sound of rain, shinshin is the sound for snow, pokapoka is the meaning for when you are grateful that it is sunny (so you would not say this in the summer and you are hot and sweaty...there is a different 'sound' for that...jirijri or giragira), fuwafuwa is fluffy, sallasalla is smooth, gorogoro is being lazy and rolling around on the floor (my favorite), chuchu is the sound a mouse makes. I am sure you get the point. These types of words are called gion-go. So you see, they have a 'sound' for everything, or perhaps it is better described as something they say to express the sentiment of the situation but not really a sound.

So anyways, the sound for chidori, comes from its name as much as the call it makes to others of its kind, it is chiyo. Chiyo when put to kanji, becomes 千代.  千代 also has another meaning, as anyone could have guess given the Japanese cultural affinity for having double meanings. 千 means 1000 and 代 means generation. 1000 generations. Can you guess what it means? Probably. It means longevity and good health to whatever the symbol is representing. So if you wear it on a kimono to a wedding, it means you hope they have a long and healthy marriage. If it stands in front of an izakaya, it means they either want their establishment to be prosperous, or they want you to think that you will have a long and healthy life if you eat there. 

I have also been seeing them in pastries a lot lately, especially this one found in the Porta area under Kyoto Station. I can only assume that it means I will live for 1000 years if I eat one...