A shoal of young ayu — sweetfish — pushes upstream through a clear river in early summer. A boy stands mid-current with his arms flung wide, a rabbit watches from a rock, and rabbitear iris opens along the bank. The characters 5月, Japanese for “May”, are printed in the top corner as part of the artwork and cannot be removed from the file; outside Japan they simply give you one more shape to color. The scene opens easily onto memories of playing in rivers and of the fishing season ahead, which makes it a useful starting point for recreation sessions in care settings as well as for quiet coloring at home. Free to download and print.
🗣 Conversation Starters — for care activities and family time
“Did you play in a river when you were a child?”
“Have you ever fished for ayu, or for any river fish?”
“Is there a way of cooking ayu you are fond of — salt-grilled, or simmered in sweet soy?”
“What river ran near the place you grew up, and what lived in it?”
🐟 What is the ayu run?
Ayu spawn in the lower reaches of a river in autumn. The hatchlings drift down to the sea or to the brackish water of the estuary and spend the winter there, and as the water warms in spring the young fish turn around and climb back up. That return journey is the sojo, the upstream run. Through April and May whole shoals move together against the current, and the sight is one of the familiar markers of spring in Japan. Not every population goes to sea: the ko-ayu of Lake Biwa complete the same cycle without ever leaving the lake.
🌊 How do such small fish get past dams and weirs?
Many Japanese rivers are broken up by weirs and small dams, and a shoal of finger-length fish cannot simply swim over them. Fish ladders — stepped channels that let fish climb in short hops — are built into a great many of these structures for exactly this reason, and young ayu are among the fish they are designed around. Where a run is still blocked, fisheries associations commonly release young fish above the obstruction instead, so the shoals you see in early summer are usually a mix of wild and stocked fish.
🗾 Why is 5月 printed on the picture?
The characters 5月 mean “May”. The illustration belongs to a month-by-month series, so the month is drawn into the picture itself rather than added afterwards, and it stays there in the printable file. It also dates the scene precisely: May is when the young fish are running, which is why the artist put a boy in the water and the iris in bloom on the bank.
💐 What is the kakitsubata iris?
Kakitsubata, the rabbitear iris, opens deep violet flowers in May along riverbanks and in wet ground. It is the prefectural flower of Aichi, and it gives Japanese the saying izure ayame ka kakitsubata — “whether iris or rabbitear iris” — used when two things are both so fine that choosing between them is impossible. The flower has been written into Japanese poetry since the Heian period.
🎨 How should this scene be colored?
A pale blue deepening toward the far bank gives the water its current, and leaving a few streaks unfilled reads as light on the surface. The ayu themselves want silver-grey with the faintest wash of olive along the back — go too dark and they disappear into the water. The iris needs a deep, saturated violet to hold its own against everything around it. Using two greens for the bankside plants, a yellow-green in front and a darker one behind, opens up the depth of the scene.
