Discussion

Certain times of year are special to us, and observance of those times has us doing things we don't ordinarily do on a day-to-day basis. Children go Trick-or-Treating wearing costumes on Halloween, and we cooperate by doling out sweet treats, hoping to avoid tricks. Candy eggs are sought for on Easter. That is also one of the most popular days of the year for many of us to go to church, even if we aren't regular church goers. Fireworks and parades are watched on the 4th of July. We send greeting cards on Mother's Day and Father's Day if we are no longer living with them, or we treat them to dinner in fine restaurants. Even better than that if we are living with them is to make breakfast in bed for them, sticky syrup and all. Valentine's Day is a special time for couples. It goes without saying that Thanksgiving Day and Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza each has a host of traditions. New Year's Day is a time for making resolutions after the hangover from the evening before has passed, even if we're certain to forget them before a week has passed. 

Japan has special times of the year, too. Obon, an annual Buddhist festival for commemorating one's ancestors, is very important. So is Hinamatsuri (Girl's Day) and Kodomo no Hi (Children's day). Christmas is widely celebrated in Japan today, even by non-Christians. It is thought of as a time to spread happiness, something that has universal appeal. There are others. But the most important day of the year in Japan is Shōgatsu (正月). Since 1873 when Japan converted to the Gregorian Calendar, the Shōgatsu period has been celebrated starting on January 1, the same as most of the rest of the world. Strictly speaking, Shōgatsu is celebrated the first month of the year, but it is more commonly applied to the first three days, especially New Year's Day.

Shōgatsu is observed in a number of ways, a few of which are described below.

A must for many Japanese is a visit to a Shinto (the way of the Gods) shrine to pray for good fortune. This first visit in the year to a shrine is called Hatsumōde (初詣). New York City has its ball drop at the stroke of midnight; Shinto Shrines strike their large temple bells.

Shintoism stopped being the state religion of Japan in1945, but it is still deeply embedded in Japan's culture. Shrines are often so crowded at the beginning of Shōgatsu that police sometimes need to be called out to keep order. Tōkyō's Meiji Shrine alone attracts millions of people during the first three days of the year.

Besides praying at shrines, people often buy omikuji, fortune-telling paper strips, and ema, little wooden placards with a picture on one side. Originally, horses were depicted, but practices are more liberal today. Pictures of Zodiac animals are common. Ema are tokens of gratitude for answered prayers. People write prayers and wishes on the reverse side and typically hang them in a special place reserved for ema at the shrine.

The most popular first meal of New Years Day is ozoni (お雑煮), broth soup that contains mochi (rice cake) and other goodies.

Ozoni is often accompanied by otoso (屠蘇), spiced sake that flushes away the previous year's maladies and helps those who aspire for a long life. Special serving sets are reserved for its use.

Shōgatsu decorations are set out. The one depicted below is a fancy version of a kagami mochi (mirror rice cake). The basic version consists of two round mochi balls, a smaller one set atop a larger one, with a daidai (Japanese bitter orange) with an attached leaf on top. In America, a tangerine does just as well. There can be other elements, too, It sits on square piece of paper which in turn rests on a stand called a sanbō (三方).

Kagami mochi is made of rice harvested in the most recent fall. It is thought to contain the pure spirit of rice, thereby being possessed with toshigami, a deity that visits during Shōgatsu bringing good harvests, the blessing of ancestors, and the power of life.

Another Shōgatsu decoration is a kazari.

Homes and sometimes shops put a pair of kadomatsu (門松 gate pine) in front of entrances to welcome toshigami, the deities referred to earlier. The pair below are in front of a noodle shop.

Shōgatsu is also a time for aisatsu-mawari (greeting & walk around). Families prepare large quantities of osechi ryōri, or osechi for short, a collection of traditional foods associated with the holiday. They then welcome visits from relatives, friends, and acquaintances throughout the day as a gesture of renewal and to sample the food. In practice, that usually means that the women stay home to play host while the men go on aisatsu-mawari, but that isn't a firm rule.

Shōgatsu is a time for fun activities, too. A popular card game is hyakunin isshu (百人一首, hundred poems and poets). The game is played with two sets of one hundred cards each. Each card in one of the sets has a complete waka poem. The other set has only the last part of each poem. Haiku is a poem with 5 syllables in the first stanza, 7 in the next, and 5 in the last. In other words, 5-7-5. A waka poem has 5-7-5-7-7 syllables. One player reads the beginning of a poem from the card with the complete poem. The other player has to find the matching card in the other set with only the last part of the poem. It is hard to play the game if you haven't memorized all of the poems. Children sometimes play a learning tool version called karuta that uses the hiragana syllabary instead of kanji.

Another fun Shōgatsu activity is kite flying. This unit ends with an ukiyo-e print from Katsushika Hokusai's series, 36 Views of Mt. Fuji.

Common Subject Combinations

This week's painting subject is pine tree and roses. That combination of subjects in a single composition as a name; furōchōshun.

This semester, we have focused on shikunshi subjects (the Four Gentlemen) by studying each of them individually. As could be seen in some of the classical Japanese art shown in the lessons, however, they aren't always painted as solo subjects. Sometimes combinations of them are featured in single compositions.

While the shikunshi subjects have long been popular with Japanese as well as Chinese artists because of the feeling that they have a "nobler sense" than other plants, there are many other plants as well as other recurring subjects in traditional Japanese art. Combinations of different plants, animals, rocks, etc. are common. Like furōchōshun, several compositions have names. The table below lists several of them.