Portland Japanese Garden

by Lynn Geis
photos by Lynn and Ed Geis

O-Shogatsu*
(New Year’s)

New Year’s in Japan is similar in spirit to America’s Christmas season. Many Japanese make a special effort to visit Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples during the New Year’s holidays, and family members get together to celebrate. Prior to 1873, the lunar calendar dictated the date of New Year’s. Since the adoption of the solar calendar, New Year’s Day is celebrated on January first. In the weeks and days leading up to the new year, Japanese of all ages are busy with myriad activities to ensure making a fresh start and enjoying good fortune in the coming year.

*: O precedes many words in this article. It is an honorific appended to many words in Japanese to show respect or reverence.

Bonenkai
(“forget the past year” parties)

The idea behind Bonenkai is to hold a party where lots of food and plenty of alcohol are served, to help wash away all the unpleasantness of the past year and begin the new year with a clean slate. Bonenkai are a must for every work group. There may be parties for one department, the whole company, clients, etc. Options for these parties range from snack food and drinks to lavish social gatherings on a cruise ship sailing around the Sumida River in Tokyo complete with live music and dancing. There may be parties for other groups as well, such as judo or chess clubs or former classmates.

O-soji
(big cleaning)

According to ancient belief, Toshigami (God of the Year) visits every home at New Year’s, so many preparations are devoted to being ready to receive him. These preparations might include paying off debts and thoroughly cleaning the house, office, or classroom. Floors and walls are scrubbed, rooms and desks are tidied, and borrowed items are returned. School children always clean their school, but for o-soji they make a game of running across the floors pushing damp towels with their hands.

Kado matsu
(translates as “gate pine”)

Kado matsu is the name of a traditional arrangement of three bamboo stalks, branches of pine and plum, and some rice straw. It is considered a temporary home for the kami, or god of the new year. Some homes set these decorations on either side of the entry. Department stores and other businesses put large kado matsu at the entrance. This trio of plants is rich with symbolism: the pine represents long life, bamboo represents strength and resilience, and the plum—which is the first tree to bloom, sometimes when there is still frost on the ground—represents constancy and hope.

Shimenawa
(sacred rice straw)

Evil spirits cannot pass beyond a garland of freshly braided rope of rice straw festooned with folded white paper. After thorough house cleaning, many Japanese hang shimenawa across the front door so bad luck cannot enter. Some people even drape the ropes across their car grills. Throughout the year, one sees shimenawa at the entrance of many temples and shrines, and wrapped around trunks of ancient trees.

The use of shimenawa can be traced back to the Japanese legend of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. After her brother, the Storm God Susano, played a nasty trick on her, Amaterasu hid in a cave, thus casting the whole world into darkness. Another brother, the Moon God, soothed her by dancing in front of the cave while lesser gods played musical instruments. Amaterasu was overcome with curiosity and enticed out of the cave where she became entranced with her own reflection in a mirror that had been hung in front of the cave. The Moon God quickly stretched a rice straw rope across the entrance of the cave to prevent her from going back into hiding, and so sunlight was brought back into the world.

Nengajo
(New Year’s postcards)

By mid-December people are busy addressing nengajo to send to business associates and clients as well as friends and family. They are available in a great variety of styles, like American Christmas cards. Creative or ambitious people make their own. All postcards dropped off at the Post Office by a specified date are delivered on New Year’s morning by an army of temporary workers hired for this one special day. It takes an army: four billion nengajo are sent annually. To add to the excitement, the Post Office prints cards with lottery numbers on one side and a blank side to be decorated by the sender. A lottery drawing is televised in mid-January, with thousands of prizes awarded.

Sake

On the morning of New Year’s Day, otoso (spiced sake) is served. First, the eldest family member drinks three gulps, and then each family member—in order of their age—takes a turn. Large sake casks are broken open at shrines or community events and served to everyone.

Mochi
(pounded glutinous rice)

Most stores close for several days at New Year’s, so in the days before refrigeration a variety of preserved foods became part of traditional New Year’s meals. The most important of these is mochi, or pounded glutinous rice. Mochi will keep for several days and is also tasty grilled. These days it is possible to buy mochi at the grocery store or to make it with an electric pounding appliance, but the very best mochi is made the old-fashioned way: hot steamy rice is put in a heavy wooden or granite usu (mortar) and pounded with a large wooden kine (pestle or mallet). Rice has been the most important crop in Japan for centuries, the key to prosperity and a full belly, and pounding rice brings out its sacred essence. The final result is a soft, smooth, and chewy dough-like glob that is pinched into small balls. It may be filled with sweet bean paste, dropped like dumplings into soup, or used in a hundred other ways (depending on the region). Mochitsuki (mochi pounding) is a family or community event, with people taking turns at pounding, while another person with courage and care reaches into the bowl between hits to turn the rice.

Kagami Mochi
(mirror mochi)

Two large mochi balls (some as big as a cantaloupe) are stacked with a bright orange on the top and festooned with sacred papers, fern boughs, and other auspicious decorations. Some say the mochi represents the mirror that the Sun Goddess Amaterasu saw when she came out of the cave and brought sunlight back to the universe. The arrangement is placed in front of a family’s small in-home altar and on altars in shrines and temples, and merchants often set kagami mochi on the counter. This custom began in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Rice is central to the nation’s prosperity, so a rice offering is a way to give thanks for a bountiful harvest as well as a prayer for future good fortune. People call the orange “Dai dai suzuku“; “Dai dai” is the name of a particular orange, and it also means “generation”. “Suzuku” is the verb “to continue.”

Joya no Kane
(the night-watch bell)

The final act of wiping the slate clean is played out at Buddhist temples all over the country, starting before midnight on December 31. In a ceremony called Joya no Kane, temple bells are rung one hundred and eight times to welcome the new year and obliterate the sins or troublesome desires of the past year. One explanation of this precise number is that, according to Buddhist teaching, there are six senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, and cognition; these have three natures: good, bad, and neutral. Each of these 18 attributes has both positive and negative aspects that can exist in the past, present, or future. Thus you have 6 × 3 × 2 × 3 or 108 reasons to toll the bell. Traditionalists visit the temple grounds before midnight to watch and listen, or maybe be invited to climb a ladder into the belfry to take a turn striking the huge iron bell. Those who prefer a televised ceremony from the warmth of their home can watch a team of thirty monks toll the seventy-four-ton bell at the Chion-in Temple in Kyoto.

Music

Earlier on New Year’s Eve, there is a televised performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony which they call Daiku (Great Nine). It has been a popular concert for the holiday season since the 1900’s, but now it must vie for loyalty with “The Red Versus the White Battle,” a competition between male and female pop music stars—a singing Super Bowl.

Firsts

Once everyone is ready for a fresh start, there are many auspicious “firsts.” Early birds trek to a favorite viewpoint to greet the first sunrise of the year. Then there is Hatsumode, the first visit to temples and shrines where various amulets are for sale, such as images of the Shichifukujin (Seven Gods of Good Fortune) or the zodiac animal for the year.

Food

New Year’s food, O-sechi ryori, is purchased or prepared at home ahead of time for first meals and includes o-zoni, a soup with regional variations but which always includes mochi balls. Other foods are on the menu because of their appearance or because their name sounds like something auspicious. For example, long soba noodles (toshikoshi) represent long life and must be eaten very close to midnight; herring eggs suggest fertility; tataki gobo or gobo root ensures a stable, deeply rooted life because “tataki” sounds like “lots of joy”; sea bream or tai is on the menu because the reddish color is good luck and “tai” reminds one of medetai (congratulations); shrimp represent the hope to live to old age and have long whiskers; black beans are called mame and “mame mame shi” refers to an industrious person; and lotus root is a reminder of the Land of Happiness where the lotus blooms and Buddha lives.

Dreams

Some day, some how, someone divined that certain images occuring in a dream on New Year’s eve foretell good luck for the coming year. Most auspicious: Mt. Fuji—next, a hawk—third, an eggplant!

Zodiac

The Japanese zodiac differs from the western one in some significant ways: your birth year, not month, dictates your sign, and there are twelve animals in this zodiac. There are two legends explaining how the twelve animals earned their special place in the zodiac:

• The first legend tells how five thousand years ago in China, Huang Di, the Jade Emperor, invited all the animals of the kingdom to participate in a race across a river. The first twelve across would forever represent one of the twelve years in the lunar cycle. First across the river was clever Rat, who rode on the oxen’s back and jumped off at the finish line. Next came Ox, then Tiger, Rabbit, and Dragon. Snake finished sixth, followed by Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog, and Boar.

• In the second legend (which dates back around 2500 years), Buddha invites all the animals of the kingdom to a special feast. Only twelve animals come and Buddha designates each one as a special representative for a month and a year. Buddha describes the strengths and weaknesses of each one, and directs them to go into the world and be an inspiration and a guide to all people.

The Lunar New Year occurs sometime in late January or early February. The entire lunar zodiac cycle is sixty years, and combines the five elements of metal, water, wood, fire, and earth, plus yin and yang energy. In addition to years and months, days and hours of the day also have special characteristics. Some Japanese calendars offer this information, but most modern Japanese don’t understand the complex system.

The horoscopes that derive from the lunar zodiac enjoy great popularity, and auspicious dates are interpreted by Shinto priests and frequently relied upon as lucky for important events such as marriages, beginning a construction project, or opening a new business.

Each year calendars, toys, and myriad products are produced with the image of the zodiac animal for that year. Papier-mâché zodiac animals are made in a variety of styles in regions throughout Japan, including whimsical head-bobbers.

Otoshidama

Children look forward to visits from their relatives at New Year’s because they will receive otoshidama, little decorated envelopes of money. If the grandparents have their way, children will still play some old card games, fly kites, spin tops, or play hanetsuki, a game similar to badminton.

Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu!

Happy New Year!

NOTE: Because many Japanese customs date back to the beginning of recorded history, there are various interpretations of the symbolism of rituals. The internet is a rich repository of information about all of the topics discussed in this article. You will be rewarded for your efforts with many photos and personal accounts.

Lynn Geis writes monthly articles on Japanese culture and crafts for Yuuyake Shimbun, a newspaper published in Portland, Oregon by Pacific Rim Publications. Please write to kcobb@japanesegarden.com for information regarding reprint rights. © 2006