Children's Day salutes Japanese culture

On the first floor of Japanese Cultural and Community Center on Sunday, Avante Price, 9, busied himself cutting patterned light-blue paper for his elaborate kabuto, or samurai warrior hat.

Other children wearing blue, pink and green paper samurai armor worked on hats nearby.

His parents, Victoria and Johnny Price, lived for three years in rural Japan, where they taught English, and they brought Avante to the celebration of Kodomo No Hi, or Children's Day, to expose him to Japanese culture.

"There's some nostalgic feelings," said Johnny Price.

On Sunday, kids and koi were the dominant themes at the cultural center. The fish represents persistence and swimming upstream, and is a key symbol for the Japanese national holiday celebrating children, along with samurai and dolls, said program director Bif Brigman.

The weekend celebration marked the first time the center has hosted Children's Day. The center was required to host an open house as part of a grant, Brigman said, and employees wanted to make it more interactive with the Children's Day celebration. Brigman said he hopes it will become an annual event.

The running joke among American parents at Sunday's event was, "Every day is Children's Day."

Participants at the event took part in nearly three dozen activities at the center, cutting out paper samurai hats, learning calligraphy and coloring and assembling paper. Other activities included taiko drumming, karate demonstrations and a popcorn-eating contest with chopsticks.

Board president Lori Matsukawa, also a news anchor at KING-5 TV, said the board would like to turn the century-old building into more than a meeting place and make it a true cultural center with the open house. The center is at 1414 S. Weller St. in Seattle's Central Area.

"Now, it's coming back to life," she said.

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com