FEASTS AND FESTIVITIES.
Festivities in the old days—The New Year’s Day—The
New Year’s dreams—January—February—The Feast of Dolls—The
Equinoctial day—Plum-blossoms—Cherry-blossoms—The flower
season—Peach-blossoms—Tree-peonies and wistarias—The Feast of
Flags—The Fête of the Yasukuni Shrine—Other fêtes—The Feasts of
Tanabata and Lanterns—The river season—Moon-viewing—The Seven Herbs
of Autumn—October—The Emperor’s Birthday—Chrysanthemums and
maple-leaves—The end of the year.
There are feasts and festivities galore in Tokyo. In the old times the
feast-days marked in the calendar were far more numerous than they
are now. In those days, while the daimyo and his retainers travelled
pretty often between Yedo and their native province, the citizens
seldom left town; it was a red-letter day with them when they set out
on a pilgrimage to the great shrine of Ise or on a trip to Kyoto; and
even these persons formed a very small minority. The high roads were
infested by robbers; and it was only with their lives in their hands
that humble citizens could go on a long journey. Being, then, confined
in the town, its inhabitants naturally took what pleasures they could
in it and availed themselves of every festivity to give themselves
up to enjoyment. The festivals of the tutelary deities were, for
instance, celebrated with great pomp; on annual feast-days the
time-honoured customs were religiously observed; and the flowers of
the season were admired and made occasions for general hilarity, for
they served to break the monotony of a purely urban life. But the
great facilities of transportation which have been introduced since
the Restoration have in these days diminished the interest of the
better classes in their city. The well-to-do men, who formerly
considered it a luxury to possess a villa on the outskirts of Tokyo,
are now not content unless they keep one at Kamakura or beyond for
spending the week-end in and another a hundred miles or more from the
city for their summer retreat. Kamakura and Enoshima, which are
only thirty miles away from Tokyo, were in the old days so distant
that they would not think of visiting them unless they intended to
spend a few days there; but now school-children are taken to those
places on a day’s excursion. The ease with which men can leave the
city has made them but lukewarm supporters of the institutions which
gave the town its periodical gaiety; for they no longer take an active
part in the local festivities or pride themselves upon the fine show
their ward might make on such occasions. Even the flowers for which
Tokyo is noted they go to look at in the country; and the festivals of
the tutelary deities have lost their former splendour, and their most
prominent feature, the procession-cars, cannot now be built on the
grand scale of the old days, for unless they can be bent low, they
cannot parade the streets without snapping the innumerable electric
wires which disfigure the thoroughfares of the metropolis. Of the five
great feasts which were held every year in former times, two are no
longer celebrated in Tokyo, the Feast of Tanabata on the seventh day
of the seventh month of the lunar calendar and the Feast of the
Chrysanthemum on the ninth day of the ninth month, the remaining three
being the New Year’s Day on the first day of the first month, the
Feast of Dolls on the third day of the third month, and that of Flags
on the fifth day of the fifth month.
Still there remain many occasions on which the Tokyo cit may take his
pleasure at home and abroad. The first of these, the New Year’s Day,
presents the gayest appearance everywhere and is a day of general
rejoicing. On either side of the gate or front door at every house
stands a large pine branch supported by an unstripped bamboo-pole or
two, and overhead flies the national flag. On the cross-beam of the
gate or over the porch hangs a coil of sacred rope, to which are
attached a piece of fern, a lobster, a bit of _konbu_ (_laminaria_),
and an orange. Indoors too, a piece of rope with a frond of fern is
suspended in different rooms. In the morning when the family gather
for breakfast, a set of three wooden goblets are brought on a stand,
and the members of the household wish one another a happy New Year and
drink spiced _mirin_ with one of the goblets in the order of
their position in the family; and instead of the usual boiled rice,
they eat cakes of pounded rice roasted and boiled in a soup of greens.
This drinking of _mirin_ and eating of rice-cakes is repeated on the
two mornings following. On the New Year’s Day people go out to present
the New Year’s greetings to their friends and relatives. This custom
is now less observed than formerly; for in these days they greet one
another by post, and millions of postcards pass through the Tokyo post
offices in the beginning of the year. On the New Year’s Day larger
shops are closed, as well as offices, public and private. The streets
are gay with the New Year’s decorations and with people going to and
fro for the New Year’s greetings; while in streets of shops and
small houses young men and women and children may be seen playing at
battledore and shuttlecock in the open road to the great obstruction
of the thoroughfare, the fun of the game being that those who miss a
shuttlecock have their faces smeared with Indian ink or white paint.
[Illustration: THE TREASURE-SHIP.]
[Illustration: THE NEW YEAR’S DECORATIONS.]
On the second, larger shops send out the first loads of goods for the
year in handcarts. These carts are adorned with flags bearing the
names of the firms, and the shops pride themselves upon the
number of such loads they can send out on this day. In the evening
hawkers come with pictures of a treasure-ship with the seven deities
of fortune on board; over the picture is written an ode of thirty-one
syllables which is remarkable for being a palindrome. It runs thus:—
_Na ka ki yo no to o no ne fu ri no mi na me za me na mi no ri fu
ne no o to no yo ki ka na._
It will be seen that if the syllables are taken each as one sound,
the ode is same when read backward. It may be translated: “They have
all awakened from the long night’s sleep; and how pleasant is the
sound as the ship rides the waves!” These slips are eagerly purchased
as they are supposed, if put under the pillow on this night, to give
lucky dreams. The luckiest dream of all is, according to common
superstition, that of Mount Fuji, next to which is a dream of a hawk,
and the third that of an egg-plant.
On the fourth of January, the government offices are formally opened
for the year, and other public and private offices follow suit. On the
sixth the fire-brigades of Tokyo assemble in a public place and give
acrobatic performances on fire-ladders to show their agility. This day
closes the New Year’s festivities, and the decorations are removed. On
the eighth, the Emperor reviews the troops in the morning; and on
the same day most schools reopen after the New Year’s holidays. The
sixteenth is the holiday for apprentices and servants, who go home
to their parents or spend the day at the theatres or other places of
amusement. The sixth of January opens what is called the period of
lesser cold and the twentieth is the first day of the period of
greater cold. For a fortnight from the latter date many male votaries,
especially of the artisan class, run thinly-clad at night to worship
at their favourite shrines as such enthusiasm will, it is believed,
make them proficient in their callings; they ring a bell as they run.
Some go to a well and pour cold water over themselves at midnight to
be purified by that means from the sins of the world. Children go out
before daybreak to practise their lessons, boys to read or fence and
girls to sing or play the _samisen_. The shrines to which the first
visit of the year should be paid are too numerous for mention.
On the second or third of February ends the period of greater cold,
and with it nominally the winter season. In the evening peas are
parched and thrown about in every room with the cry, “Fortune within,”
and then they are flung outdoors with the shout, “Demons without.”
This is to purify the house for the new spring season; and the members
of the family eat each a number of these peas, which is one in excess
of the years of their age. The eleventh is one of the three great
national holidays; it is the anniversary of the coronation of Emperor
Jimmu, the founder of the Japanese Imperial line, the other two being
the New Year’s Day and the Emperor’s Birthday. There are six ordinary
national holidays, namely, the anniversary of the death of Emperor
Komei, the father of the present Emperor (January 30th), the Feast of
the Vernal Equinox (March 21st or 22nd), when offerings are made to
the Imperial ancestors on the equinoctial day, the anniversary of the
death of Emperor Jimmu (April 3rd), the Feast of the Autumnal Equinox
(September 23rd or 24th), the Feast of the New Season’s rice which is
offered at the great Shrine of Ise (October 17th), and the Feast of
the New Rice which is offered to the other deities and eaten for the
first time in the Imperial Palace (November 23rd).
On the third of March falls the Feast of Dolls. Towards the end of
February, the dolls are brought out and tiers of shelves put up,
usually against a wall of the parlour. On the highest shelf sit the
Emperor and Empress, with a screen at the back and overhead a roof
adorned with curtains. Below them sit the Court ladies, while lower
still are the five Court musicians and two armed guards. These are the
regulation dolls, and to them may be added any others. Then food is
set before the Emperor and Empress on two miniature trays; and all
sorts of lilliputian household goods, such as chests of drawers,
toilet stands, and kitchen utensils, are ranged on the lower tiers.
Also white _sake_, which is _sake_ barm dissolved in _mirin_, is
offered to the dolls and drunk as well by the family. These dolls are
displayed in every family where there is a daughter, and the feast is
looked forward to by its female members, who invite their girl-friends
to come and see the array of dolls. They are put away on the sixth or
seventh.
[Illustration: THE FEAST OF DOLLS.]
The equinoctial day is the middle of a week known as _higan_, or
yonder shore, which is so called because prayers are said during the
week for the souls of those on shore, that is, in Nirvana. During the
week dumplings and rice-cakes coated with bean jam or sweetened
bean-powder are offered to the dead and also sent as presents to
friends and relatives. The family tombs are visited; and old-fashioned
people worship in succession at the six great temples dedicated to
Amitabha in the environs of the city, which entails a journey of some
fifteen miles. Many old men and women visit different shrines on the
equinoctial day as they have been told that if they pass through seven
stone _torii_ or shrine-gates on that day, they will not suffer pain
when the time comes for them to quit this world.
In the latter part of this month the plum-trees are in full bloom.
Though camellias are in flower earlier in the year, the plum-blossoms
are the first of all the flowers to attract crowds of admirers. As
plum-trees blossom sometimes while it still snows, the plum-tree
blooming under a weight of snow is emblematic of faithfulness in
adversity. The plum-blossom is not so popular as the cherry-blossom;
and yet it is the subject of more odes and poems than the other. It
possesses the grace and refinement which is lacking in the luxuriant
clusters of cherry-blossoms. Its quiet hue, the delicacy of its
fragrance, and the sense of loneliness it seems to impart appeal to
the literary and poetical-minded, who go to a plum-garden with gourds
of _sake_ and drink under the branches to which they hang slips of
paper with odes written on them in praise of the blossom. It is also
associated in our poetry with the Japan bush-warbler, the most prized
of our singing-birds, whose clear abrupt notes certainly sound
pleasant on cold, crisp mornings of early spring. Though there are
many plum-gardens in Tokyo, the most noted is that on the east side of
the River Sumida, where stands an aged tree, known as the Plum-tree of
the Couchant Dragon from the fancied resemblance of its gnarled trunk
to the sleeping form of that fabulous animal.
[Illustration: CHERRY-FLOWERS AT MUKOJIMA.]
At the end of March bloom the early flowers of the cherry called the
_higan_-cherry; but it is in the first half of the following month
that the real cherry season is in full swing. The birthday of
Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, is celebrated on the eighth of
April, when an infusion of the _hydrangea thunbergii_ is poured over
a small statue of the Buddha and the liquid is sold in small
green-bamboo tubes to the votaries. It is said to be an effective
charm against the breeding of maggots in summer. This ceremony of
the washing of the Buddha, as it is called, is soon forgotten in the
universal merriment of the cherry-flower season. The lovers of the
plum-blossom may dwell upon the superior grace and delicacy of their
favourite, but the darling of the nation is the cherry-flower; the
former has been lauded by many a poet, but the latter is considered to
be peculiarly Japanese, for no other land can boast the magnificent
clusters without a leaf to break their continuity, which look in
the distance like a bank of pale clouds, and when they fall, the
scattering petals come down as lightly as flakes of snow. When we
speak simply of _the_ flower, or of the flower-time, flower-view, or
flower-season, we allude invariably to the cherry-flower. The high
esteem in which the cherry-blossom has always been held in Japan is
exemplified in the saying, “Among men the samurai, among flowers the
cherry,” which was, in the days of military ascendancy, the highest
praise that could be bestowed. Again, how closely the flower is
identified with the country, may be seen from the famous ode of
Motoori, which runs; “Should a stranger ask what is the spirit of
Japan, to him I would show the wild-cherry blossoms glinting in the
morning sun.” That spirit is delicate and tarnished by dishonour as
readily as the flower is scattered by the wind. The cherry-flowers
bloom but for a few days; and that fact gives the motive to a
celebrated _haiku_, or verse of seventeen syllables, which may be
lamely translated:—
Ah, this world of ours!
But three days are gone; and where
Are the cherry-flowers?
The lightness and allusiveness of the original bring home the
evanescence of life even more vividly than the snows of yester-year.
The earliest to attract crowds of pleasure-seekers is Uyeno Park,
where along the walks and among other trees stand many aged
cherry trees. As the national museum and the zoological gardens are
also in the park, the season attracts hosts of school-children who
bring their luncheons and spend the whole day there. But it is the
south-east bank of the River Sumida on the outskirts of the
city, to which gather the largest throngs of sight-seers. Here an
avenue of cherry stretches for some miles, and men and women,
as they pass under, are fairly intoxicated with the sight of the
numberless clusters of cherry-blossoms. Many repair to it in parties,
often in clothes of a uniform pattern and sometimes in comical guise.
Next comes Asuka Hill, a few miles behind Uyeno, and then Koganei on
a road west of the city, and lastly, the River Arakawa, on the north,
noted for its cherry-blossoms of other colours than the usual pale
pink. In the city there are many smaller spots where the blossoms may
be seen to advantage.
About the same time as the cherry-flowers the peach also is in bloom;
but it fails to attract many sight-seers. Towards the close of April,
we have the azalea, which flowers for about a fortnight; it has not
the delicate tint of the cherry-flower, and its deep red is apt to
pall on the beholder. Besides, as it blooms when people are tired with
gazing at the cherry-blossoms, its votaries are comparatively few, and
somehow it does not arouse the enthusiasm that the national flower
excites.
Late in April flower the tree-peonies; their magnificent blossoms
command admiration. They are specially cultivated and need a great
deal of tending; they are not, therefore, like the plum and cherry
trees, often to be seen in public places, and are commonly displayed
in private gardens and nurseries. The tree-peonies are not indigenous
to Japan, but were originally introduced from China; and much as
we admire these fine flowers, they do not appeal to us like the
cherry-blossoms. A little later, the wistarias hang down their long
clusters of purple flowers; they are best seen at the shrine of
Tenmangu, not far from the plum-garden of the Couchant Dragon, where
their pendulous racemes look doubly beautiful as they are reflected in
the pond over which they hang.
The fifth of May is the Feast of Flags, which is for boys what the
Feast of Dolls is for girls. On this day little flags are set up
in a room, together with figures of men famous in history for their
strength and valour. Outdoors a gigantic carp made of paper or cloth
is tied to the top of a high pole, where it flutters when it is
filled with wind; the carp is emblematic of strength as it can swim
up a rapid current.
[Illustration: THE FEAST OF FLAGS.]
On the fifth, sixth, and seventh of May is held the great semi-annual
fête of the Yasukuni Shrine, which is dedicated to the spirits of the
officers and men of the army and navy and others who died fighting for
their country. Aides-de-camp are sent from the Imperial Court to make
offerings at the shrine. Here firework displays and wrestling matches
take place and booths of all kinds are opened during the fête. The
compound is crowded by the relatives of the dead, especially of those
who fell in the Russian war, as well as the general public. The other
semi-annual fête is held on the same days six months later.
[Illustration: THE FÊTE OF SANNO.]
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.
[Illustration: 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.”
[Illustration: 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.
On the seventeenth of October, the newly-harvested rice is offered at
the great Shrine of the Sun-Goddess in the province of Ise; and in a
country where rice is the most important food, such an occasion is
naturally celebrated as a national holiday. On the twentieth, the fête
of Daikoku and Ebisu, the two gods of fortune, is celebrated in many
merchants’ houses with a great feast to which friends and relatives
are invited.
The third of November is the Emperor’s birthday. His Majesty reviews
the troops early in the morning and holds a banquet at noon, to which
the Imperial Princes, high government officials, and the foreign
ambassadors and ministers are invited. A salute of a hundred and eight
guns is fired in the bay; and in the evening the minister for foreign
affairs gives a ball to high officials, the diplomatic corps, and
other persons of rank and position, Japanese and foreign. In this
month the chrysanthemums are in full bloom; at Dangozaka, not
far from Uyeno Park, are exhibited scenes from well-known plays or
representations of passing events, in which the figures are clothed
with chrysanthemum flowers of various colours. They attract large
crowds; but the finest flowers are to be seen in the palace-grounds at
Akasaka, where the Imperial chrysanthemum party is given, and at the
mansions of noblemen and men of wealth. This month is also noted for
the maple-leaves, which, when they become crimson, are highly admired;
and many people make pilgrimages to the banks of the Takinogawa, a
few miles north of Uyeno Park, where they are to be seen in great
profusion.
In December people are too busy with the year-end settlement of
accounts and preparations for the New Year to indulge in festivities,
though there are not a few easy-going men who get up towards the close
of the month what are called dinners for forgetting the passing year.
From the middle of the month, fairs are held in different parts of the
city for the sale of articles required for the New Year’s decorations
and battledores and other things for the New Year’s amusements.
Towards the end of the month, year-end visits are paid among friends
and relatives; the New Year’s decorations are put up; and everywhere
preparations are made for the New Year’s festivities. At midnight of
the last day, the temple-bell sounds a hundred and eight strokes to
announce the passing of the old year.