FIG. 3. SAMBO AND MOCHI FOR NEW YEAR
BY I-ITSU GETCHI ROJIN.
FIG. 4. KADO-MATSU, KITE AND ROPE PULLING.
BY HOKKEI.
The girls, dressed in their best costumes, are picturesque as they play with a hand ball and at battledore and shuttlecock. The balls are made of paper and wadding wound with silk of different colors. The battle boards are of a white wood called kiri and are often elaborate affairs, adorned on one side with the portrait of a hero made of colored silks. The shuttlecock is composed of the seed of the soapberry, to which bright feathers are attached. On a surimono in this exhibition two girls are at play upon a red mat spread beneath the blossoming plum tree. To one of the branches is clinging a nightingale, the bird which heralds the approach of spring. All of the poems on this surimono treat of the New Year and the nightingale’s song. One, literally translated, reads, “Spring’s first wind melting the snow, let laugh the plum, let cry the nightingale.” Another rendered in English is as follows: “Like the comical manner of a bouncing ball, the nightingale’s song rolls (like a ball) on the plum branch.”
Young maidens carrying flat bamboo baskets make excursions into the country to gather the seven spring grasses (nanakusa). These greens, the water drop-wort, shepherd’s purse, radish, celery, dead-nettle, turnip and rock-cress, are the components which are needed for the celebration of the first of the five festivals known as Go-sekku. This one occurs on the seventh day of the first month.
While the young people enjoy these pastimes out of doors, within the house the older members of the family indulge in the writing of a New Year’s poem or in playing one of the games described in the next section of this leaflet. The writing of poems at this auspicious time is almost universal, indeed, the composing of poetry and the mastery of caligraphy are considered as necessary accomplishments for the cultured person. The most common form of New Year’s poem is that known as tanka. It is a poem of five lines, the first and third of which contain five syllables, the other three seven, and is the poem almost always found on surimono. Poems are often inscribed on fans as in Fig. 5, where one young woman meditates over the verse which she has written on a fan. A companion seated at a writing table, is grinding ink with one hand and holding with the other a poem paper (tanzaku). Such long strips are to be seen in many houses awaiting the New Year’s inspiration. They are sometimes tinted to a soft shade or ornamented with appropriate New Year’s flowers or with silver clouds as in this case. One of the poems accompanying this surimono is worthy of translation: “From the window, lighting the brush for the first writing, the plums’ fragrance on the wind is blowing.”
On the first day of the year, musicians and dancers proceed from house to house. The musician, wearing a flat straw hat which partially covers her face, charms away birds of ill omen with a few strains played on the samisen. The dancers are either those known as manzai or are those who enact the lion dance, a performance adopted from China. (Costumes used in the lion dance of China may be seen in Case 5, Hall I, ground floor.) With the majority of families much of the day is spent in paying visits to friends, at which times it is customary to present small gifts, usually of trifling value such as conserves, fruit, fish, persimmons, herring roe, bean-curd, towels and similar articles. Presents are either placed on trays in ceremonial form or carefully wrapped in paper or silk and tied with red and white cords.
Accompanying every gift there is always a quiver-shaped envelope of folded paper called noshi, in which is inserted a strip of dried haliotis or awabi. This odd custom, like so many others, has an interesting significance. The strip of haliotis is symbolic of long life and durability of affection, because it is capable of being stretched to great length. The single shell of this mollusk also suggests singleness of affection. In the ancient days when Japan was a nation of fishermen, a piece of dried awabi was indeed a valuable gift. In the present use of the noshi and awabi, some say that the Japanese would recall the primitive days, thereby preserving the virtue of humility. Another conspicuous object which is usually in evidence at New Year’s is the small treasure boat (takarabune) sometimes made of straw and symbolizing the coming of the “Seven Gods of Good Luck” Shichifukujin. Pictures of takarabune are placed beneath the pillow with the wish that the New Year’s dream may be a fortunate one.
No work is done on the first day of the festival, even the sweeping of the house is omitted, lest some good fortune be scattered to the winds. All stores are closed to regular business. On the second day a pretense is made toward returning to normal life. The musician takes out his instrument, the student looks into his books, the artist gets out his brushes and the merchant distributes his goods from gaily colored handcarts. The storehouse of treasures is opened and enjoyed on this day as well, rarely on the first day for fear good fortune and wealth should flee away. The large mirror dumplings are taken from the ceremonial stands and from before the family shrine on the fourth day, and cut into small pieces known as “teeth-strengtheners.” On this day also, the fire brigades of Tōkyō march in procession and perform gymnastic feats. At early dawn on the seventh day the master of the house, who follows the old customs closely, arises and goes to the kitchen where he washes the seven spring herbs (nanakusa) in the first water drawn from the well. He then chops them on a board, moving his knife in time with a certain incantation concerned with cheating any birds of ill omen which might come to the country. The chopped herbs are boiled in a kind of rice gruel and served with ceremony at the breakfast. On the eleventh day the military men used to offer mirror dumplings before their armor. The long celebration of the festival is finally brought to a close with the burning of the kado-matsu and other decorations on the fourteenth or fifteenth day of the first month.