Home Life in Tokyo

by Jukichi Inouye

Early in June the irises and sweet-flags flower; there are gardens in Tokyo where these flowers are specially cultivated and shown to the public. June is also the month for the annual fêtes of many local deities. There are nearly fifty shrines where annual fêtes are held in Tokyo; and the greatest of these are the Sanno and Kanda Myojin, whose fêtes were until lately among the famous sights of the city. The fête of the Sanno takes place on the fifteenth of June, while that of the Kanda Myojin is celebrated on the same day three months later.

On the seventh of July took place the Feast of Tanabata, which is now seldom observed in Tokyo. On this night, according to the legend, the only one in the whole year when the Weaver (the star Vega) can meet her lover the Cow-herd (the star Altair) on the other side of the Heavenly River, as the Milky Way is called, magpies come and spread their wings across the river to bring the lovers together. And this meeting is celebrated with various offerings. The sixteenth of the month is, like the same day in January, the holiday for apprentices and servants. About this time, midsummer presents are exchanged between friends and relatives; but the most important occurrence in the middle of the month is the Feast of Lanterns. On the thirteenth, preparations are made for welcoming the spirits of the dead. The family tomb is visited and washed, while at home the shrine is decorated with festoons of vermicelli, to which are attached ears of Italian millet and panicum frumentaceum, dried persimmons, and the fruit of the torreya nucifera, and the lower part of the shrine is enclosed with a little fence of cryptomeria. In the evening, hemp-reeds are burnt in an earthen pan in front of the porch to receive the spirits who are then believed to enter the dwelling. On the fourteenth, offerings are made at the shrine and a priest is often called in to recite prayers. On the evening of the fifteenth when the spirits conclude their visit, the hemp-reeds are again burnt to speed them; people light their pipes at the fire and smoke as a charm against diseases of the mouth and step over the embers to secure themselves against all ailments in the lower parts of the body.

THE FEAST OF LANTERNS.

About the end of July or beginning of August, the opening of the boating season on the River Sumida is celebrated with a grand display of fireworks, which is attended by large crowds from all parts of the city, while the tea-houses around are full of guests. In August the morning-glory is in full bloom, and people repair at dawn to Iriya in the north of Tokyo to look at the flowers for which it is noted as the buds untwist into open blossoms, and pass on their way home by Shinobazu Pond, close to Uyeno Park, and watch the lotus flowers burst open with a loud report.

On the twenty-sixth day of the seventh month of the old lunar calendar, which falls ordinarily on some day late in August or early in September, people climb up a hill at night or go to the water-side to see the moon rise; for it is considered lucky to catch a glimpse of the three images of Amitabha which are said to be visible for an instant before the moon comes into sight. On the fifteenth of the eighth month when the moon is always full, offerings of fifteen dumplings, soy beans, and persimmons are set before the moon and odes composed in praise of the beautiful satellite. Indeed, the eighth month is poetically called the “month of the moon-view.”

OFFERINGS TO THE FULL MOON.

On the ninth day of the ninth month was observed in the old days the Feast of the Chrysanthemum, when a party was held in the Imperial Palace for looking at the flower and partaking of an infusion of chrysanthemums in sake; but this custom has died out, and the Imperial chrysanthemum party is now given in the latter part of November. On the thirteenth of the same lunar month occurs the last of the three moon-viewing festivals, when offerings similar to those on the fifteenth of the preceding month are made, the only difference being that the number of dumplings is thirteen instead of fifteen. People go out at this time to look at the Seven Herbs of Autumn, the principal of which is the lespedeza bicolor with its pretty little red flowers; the other six are the miscanthus sinensis, pueraria thunbergiana, dianthus superbus, patrinia seabiosœfolia, cupatorium chinense, and platycodon grandiflorum. The autumnal equinox is celebrated in the same manner as the vernal.

The greatest event in October is the commemoration of the death of Nichiren, the founder of the Buddhist sect of that name, who died in 1282 at the temple of Honmonji, a few miles south-west of Tokyo. On the evening of the twelfth, the votaries leave Tokyo in parties chanting prayers and beating flat drums; and they sit up all night in the temple or, if they cannot get lodging anywhere, lie down in the extensive temple-grounds. On the thirteenth, the anniversary of Nichiren’s death, mass is held in great state in the temple. Even those who do not profess the Nichiren doctrines visit the temple to look at the crowds gathered there. The only other religious celebration of the kind that can compare with it is the commemoration of the death of Shinran, the founder of the Shin sect, which takes place on the twenty-eighth of November in the two great temples of Honganji in Tokyo.