I met with Kentaro Saito, president and CEO of Hibikiya, one of the four companies who have come together to form the Omagari Hanabi Display Team. Omagari is a region in Japan famous for its fireworks and the Japanese word Hanabi means “flower of fire”. I was grateful to Riiko, a pyrotechnician from Hibikiya who kindly acted as interpreter. Having only one team member who is fluent in another language other than Japanese is certainly a logistical challenge for the team as the site is unfamiliar to most of them (though a small contingent did visit during the competition last year).
One-shot rack with index of effects
The biggest challenge of all, though, as the fact that Japanese fireworks companies have not been exporting internationally for the past two decades, meaning they essentially haven’t competed internationally for at least a generation. So this is essentially a way for them to showcase their unique fireworks culture. It was mentioned that, due to the aging population in Japan, fireworkers are concerned that their art and culture will start to die out, so they wanted to use this opportunity to showcase their rich heritage. They picked Montreal as it is the most prestigious competition. Despite it being essentially impossible to export fireworks from Japan, the competition organizers found a way to make it happen – and much kudos should be given to Paul Csukassy and everyone involved in finding a way to make this possible.
One of 5 ramp 1 positions
As I mentioned, there are four companies responsible for the display and each of their presidents assisted in the design of the display. Each company specializes in different products:
- Hibikiya – Colour changing gradation (also known as ghost) shells – up to 16 segments with 10 colour changes per segment
- Komatsu – Warimono shells with six layers/pistils
- Wabiya – Shell-of-shells with special effects
- Kitanihon – Pattern shells including a special flower type called a “happo”
Hibikiya will also use their gradation stars in so-called pillar mines – expect to see multiple waves of colours. All of the colour and graduation shells should have very vivid colours, as this is what their audiences in Japan like.
kazuyuki Kamakawa (l) Kentaro Saito (c) and Aratake Riiko (r)
All of the shells in the display will be from the four companies above but they are using Europla and other European manufacturers for some of the one-shots (including nautical one-shots). There will be no cakes at all. Speaking of shells, ramp 1 will be unusually full of large calibre shells with around sixty 200, 250 and 300mm shells (I believe there will be nineteen 300mm). Manufacturing of the 300mm shells alone took more than a month. The display was simulated with FWSim and has around 4600 cues and will be fired using the PyroDigital system. Extensive use will be made of ramp 3 with 13 main positions and 10 on the access ramps. Ramp 5 will be in use as well as the top of the control building, ramp 4.
The design of the show is rather different than we’re used to in Montreal. The original idea was to use Japanese music and pair the fireworks with this using the traditional style of firing. This allows the audience to fully appreciate each large shell as it is not disturbed by too much other clutter in the sky. This is particularly important for the graduation and pattern shells – fire too many at once and the beauty and precision is lost. The fireworks and music are designed to evoke different emotions and so, for example, we can expect fun patterns that children will enjoy for the Monsters Inc. segment. It was a bit of a challenge for the designers to fit the mandated five minutes of laser show into the design as this news came after they’d started the design. There are some rules around this and the team left the design of these parts to the local company responsible rather than working in a medium they’re unfamiliar with. Expect to see a 3 1/2 minute segment nearer than start of the show and a 1 1/2 minute segment in the penultimate track. The concept of the overall show took around a month to complete together with two weeks for the detailed design.
I cannot emphasize enough what an absolute privilege it is to have this team here in Montreal. Literally this is the only place outside of Japan where we can witness the deep heritage and craft of this deep-rooted industry. Outside of the famous Omagari Fireworks Festival this display in Montreal will be the largest of the 100 they put on annually. Hibikiya has been in business since 1894. So far, the weather forecast is perfect for this must-see display on Thursday 4th July.
Team Japan
