Leaflet Number 11
The Japanese New Year’s Festival, Games and Pastimes
The Japanese prints with which we are most familiar in this country are those known as nishikiye, literally “brocade picture.” Generally speaking, they are portraits of actors and famous beauties or landscapes and nature studies. There are, however, other woodcuts known as surimono, “things printed,” whose subjects are characters known in history and folklore, household gods, incidents in the daily life of the people and the celebration of certain festivals, particularly that of the New Year. From a careful study of these prints we may become acquainted with many of the most distinctive customs of Japan.
Though produced by the same process as that used for the nishikiye, surimono may be easily distinguished from the former. In addition to the series of wood blocks used to print the outline and colors of the design, surimono are often enriched by the application of metal dusts and embossing. The decorative motive is usually interpreted or accompanied by a poem or series of poems written in the picture. These prints were not made for sale but were exchanged as gifts among poets and artists on certain occasions, such as feasts, birthdays, theatrical or literary meetings, and especially as cards of greeting presented at the opening of the New Year. The surimono in the collection in Field Museum of Natural History were selected primarily with the view of illustrating the customs and mode of living of the people of Japan rather than of assembling together pictures which would be enjoyed for their aesthetic appeal. While these prints are of an artistic nature, they are valuable to an institution of this kind as approaches to the study of the ethnology of Japan. The Museum is in possession of a collection of three hundred and sixty prints which has been divided into four groups, in the first of which the New Year’s festival and certain games and pastimes are pictured to a considerable degree. This selection is hung each year in Gunsaulus Hall (Room 30, Second Floor) from January 1st to April 1st, when it is succeeded by another group.
THE NEW YEAR’S FESTIVAL
Of the many festivals enjoyed in Japan, none is attended with more ceremony than that which opens with the New Year and is celebrated with more or less formality for fourteen days. It was customary in the old days to celebrate the New Year at the time when the plum first blossomed and when winter began to soften into spring, somewhere between the middle of January and the middle of February. Since the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, this festival opens on January 1st, and is attended by many of the interesting ceremonies that were practised in former times. On the thirteenth day of the preceding month, a special stew (okotojiru) is made from red beans, potatoes, mushrooms, sliced fish and a root (konnyaku). About this time a cleaning of the house takes place. It is partly ceremonial and partly practical, and is known as “soot-sweeping” (susu-haraki). Servants are presented with gifts of money and a short holiday.
According to the lunar calendar, the New Year’s celebration was opened by the ceremony known as oniyarai, “demon-driving.” This occurred at Setsubun, the period when winter passed into spring, and to-day it is generally practised at that time and is quite independent of the New Year’s festival. In some sections of the country, however, it has been moved forward to New Year’s eve, December 31st. As may be seen in the first illustration, this ceremony consists of the scattering of parched beans in four directions in the house, crying at the same time, “Out with the devils, in with the good luck.” Though sometimes performed by a professional who goes from door to door, this office is generally carried on by the head of the family. The custom may be traced back to ancient days when the demons expelled personified the wintry influences and the diseases attendant on them. It is still customary in some regions to gather up beans equal in number to the age plus one, and wrap them with a coin in a paper which has been previously rubbed over the body, to transfer ill luck. This package is then flung away at a cross-roads, with the idea that thereby ill luck is gotten rid of. Again in other places some of the beans are saved and eaten at the time of the first thunder.
In Fig. 2 other interesting steps in the celebration may be studied. Certain preparations for the demon-expelling ceremony are being made. A woman who stands near a stove is parching the beans in a flat pan. At her feet the box for the beans rests upon a low stand of the form known as sambo, that used as the support for all ceremonial arrangements on festive occasions. It is made of cypress wood; in this case it is lacquered red but when holding offerings for the gods, it is left unstained. It will be noticed that there is a charm stuck in at the upper corner of the open door in this picture. It is composed of a branch of holly on which is impaled the head of a sardine. This charm, which is always placed in the lintel after the demons have been driven out, is said to be repellent to evil influences and the prickly holly has the property of keeping demons from reëntering the house.
Immediately over the woman’s head hangs one of the most conspicuous objects associated with the New Year’s festival. It is the straw rope (shimenawa) which is stretched before the entrance at the front of the house, to remain during all the days of the celebration, and keep out all evil spirits. Smaller straw ropes are placed over inner doorways and before the household shrine or god-shelf (kami-dana). They are also to be seen on the posts of certain bridges, particularly the Gojōbashi in Kyōto. The shimenawa is always made of straw twisted to the left, the pure or fortunate side, with pendant straws at regular intervals but of differing numbers in the order three, five, seven, along the whole length of the strand. Alternating with these pendants are leaves of the fern, urajiro. Since the fern-fronds spring in pairs from the stem, this plant is symbolic of happy married life and increase. The lanciform leaves attached to the straw rope in this picture, are those of a laurel-like shrub called yuzuri. This plant has been adopted as the symbol of a long united family because the old leaves cling to the branch after the young ones have appeared. Other objects with specific meanings are often attached to the rope, the most common being paper cuttings (gohei) which represent the offerings of cloth made to the gods in ancient times. Occasionally tied to the rope are little bundles of charcoal (sumi) which, because of its changeless color, symbolizes changelessness.