Bonfires blaze across the countryside of Japan in early to mid-January each year

Dondoyaki, どんど焼き, sometimes called Sagichō, 左義長, are great bonfires where communities gather to burn their New Year‘s pine and bamboo decorations while sending the Toshi-kami, the God of the New Year, back to the realm of the spirits. This event marks the end of the New Year’s festivities.

This custom finds its roots in the Heian Era (794-1185) ceremony of Sagichō, 左義長, where aristocrats would gather at the imperial court and burn their New Year’s decorations in a carefully constructed bonfire on the top of which were hung a folding fan or tanzaku, long narrow strips of paper upon which wishes are written. A diviner would sing as the fire raged.

The sacredness of the fire led to the belief that being touched by sparks would ensure health and vigor for the year. Burning the first calligraphy of the year was a sure way for the gods to help the writer improve their skills. And as the fire died down, eating delicious dango rice dumplings and mochi roasted on the embers would protect from sicknesses during the year.

As the centuries passed, this custom made its way to the common people, and it is how people came to celebrate Dondoyaki today.

The bonfires are usually held around January 15th, a day traditionally called Koshōgatsu, 小正月, Little New Year’s Day. Although local customs respect different dates for Koshōgatsu, that day marks the end of the New Year’s celebrations. A variety of events are held across the country on Koshōgatsu — from people dressing as demons and scaring children into good behavior to peacefully eating rice gruel mixed with adzuki beans. But the most universal is Dondoyaki.

Dondoyaki

In early January, using a wide space within the grounds of a shrine, a rice field, or an empty lot, communities gather new bamboo, straw, and branches and build a tower-like pile that will be the base of the bonfire.

On the day of Dondoyaki, people bring their new year’s decorations, noshi wrapping paper from winter gifts, and the children’s first calligraphy of the year to be tossed into the flames. Simply throwing those things away is considered to be disrespectful and terribly unlucky. Using them as a means to send off the Toshi-kami is best.

Roasting mochi

As the fire dies down, young and old alike put pieces of mochi rice cakes on sticks and roast them in the fire like marshmallows, just as the Heian aristocrats did over 1,000 years ago. Sometimes the adults are served hot sake or, as in Kagoshima in the south, sweet potato shochu mixed with hot water.

Dondoyaki is not just a way to send off the Toshi-kami, but it is a wonderful way to strengthen community bonds — and enjoy nice warm roasted mochi.

There is one more fire during this period worth mentioning, and that is done exclusively by Shinto priests.

Burning the previous year’s amulets

On New Year’s Day or shortly thereafter, people pay their first visit to a Shinto shrine, called Hatsumōde, 初詣. People flock to shrines, both small and large, to bring their fuda household protection amulets, daruma dolls, and omamori lucky charms to be ritually burned by the Shinto priest. They pray for blessing, protection, success, and prosperity in the months to come. Then they line up to buy new omamori and fuda protection amulets for a fresh start for the new year.

To read about Kagoshima’s unique version of Dondoyaki, go to Giant Bonfires Banish Demons.

References:

図説民俗探訪事典 compiled by 大島 暁雄, 1982, kotobank, ウェザーニュース

The post Dondoyaki—Burning New Year’s Decorations to Send off the God of the New Year first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.

Old and new ways to ring in the New Year

After first arriving in Japan in 1987, I quickly learned to stock up for the first three days of the New Year since all stores would be shuttered while their owners and employees spent time with their families.

Times have changed. Today most stores remain open during the holidays and 24-hour convenience stores abound.

While modern times have brought welcome changes, perhaps along the way some of the understanding of the holiday customs has been lost, cast aside amid the hubbub of TV specials and New Year’s Sales.

To understand Japan’s New Year, we need to return to the holiday’s roots, which date as far back as the 1st century. In those days, the ancient people celebrated in three main ways.

• Welcoming the toshi-kami, the god of the new year.
• Praying for bountiful harvests in the coming year.
• Expressing gratitude for another year of life.

These practices are reflected in today’s New Year’s traditions, and each of the holiday’s countless customs is imbued with meaning.

Let’s take a look at a few of the most outstanding traditions, work our way forward in time, and end with a look at those TV specials.

Welcoming the God of the New Year, the Toshi-Kami

The Shinto Toshi-kami descends from the heavens via the pine decorations that adorn each house. Around the time families break and eat their kagami mochi, the New Year’s decorations are ceremonially burned—typically around January 15th, depending on regional customs—the smoke transports the god back to the heavens, leaving behind his blessings and protection for the year ahead.

This Toshi-kami is a busy god with a wide portfolio. Besides being the god who brings bounty and blessings in the new year, he also merges with the collective spirit of each family’s ancestors, their sorei, who visits their family at this time (although the sorei’s main holiday is Obon, in the summer). The Toshi-kami then becomes a ta no kami, rice field god, in the spring, and a yama no kami, mountain god, after harvest in the fall. He is also sometimes known as the god of lucky directions.

Reflecting the importance of purity and cleanliness in the Shinto religion, a thorough house cleaning is done at the end of December. People get rid of clutter, dust behind cabinets, change the paper in the paper doors, and make their houses spotless. Once that is done, Shimenawa ropes are hung upon the doorways signifying that the house is purified and ready to welcome the Toshi-kami.

Gratitude for Another Year of Life

Long ago in Japan, in accord with the Chinese method of counting years, newborns were considered one year old, and another year of life was added to everyone on New Year’s Day, regardless of their birthdays.

Gifts of Money, O-Toshi-Dama

As a kind of birthday present on New Year’s Day, children receive small envelopes filled with money for the year from each of their older relatives. This money is called o-toshi-dama, お年玉, literally “honorable year’s jewels.” Since Christmas is a fairly recent import into Japan and not a holiday (see my brief history of Christmas here), New Year’s Day is the day children have traditionally looked forward to receiving gifts, i.e., money.

Special New Year’s Dishes, Osechi-ryori

In order to take a holiday from cooking and enjoy time with one’s extended family, special foods are painstakingly prepared in advance — or bought — to be eaten together with the Toshi-kami during the first three days of the new year. Eating these meals with the gods is said to impart spiritual power and blessings upon the mortals.

Each food has its specific meaning, and there are too many to mention, but here are a few.

Sea Bream — Tai, for an auspicious year

The traditional Japanese calendar started in spring and so New Year’s Day used to be a springtime occasion. From the image of the first sprouts appearing came the expression mede-tai, 芽出度い (pronounced meh-deh-tie), literally “the time when sprouts emerge.” From that, mede-tai came to be used to describe something happy and auspicious.

For this reason, sea bream, called tai, 鯛, is an essential part of any osechi-ryōri. It plays on the homonym tai, “happy” and “auspicious” — everyone’s sincere wish for the new year.

Herring Roe — Kazunoko, for many children

Another popular item is herring roe, called kazunoko, 鯑. Its homonym means many children, 数の子.

Shrimp — Ebi, for long life

As a wish for long life, shrimp are eaten. Shrimp, called ebi, 海老, literally “the aged of the sea,” suggest the long beards and bent frames of the elderly.

Dried Sardines — Tazukuri, for bountiful harvests

Tazukuri, 田作り, is a dish made of dried sardines and soy sauce. Its name means “making a rice field.” Sardines were traditionally used as fertilizer in rice paddies in many areas of Japan, thus the dish expresses the wish for abundant harvests.

Rolled Omelets — Datemaki, for days of blessings

Perhaps my favorite wordplay is the name for the rolled, sweet omelet mixed with fish paste. It is called datemaki, 伊達巻 (pronounced dah-te-ma-key), so named because the samurai lords of Sendai (in Miyagi Prefecture), the Date clan (dah-te), were famous for being well-dressed.

In ancient Japan, holidays were called hare no hi, ハレの日, special days, and on such days people wore their finest clothes — what we might call their Sunday best.

From this idea of fashionable Date clan style clothing being worn on special days, the Date-maki sweet omelet expresses the wish for many such special days in the coming year.

Bell Ringing

From the introduction of Buddhism in the 6th century, Buddhist customs merged with the ancient Shinto customs. As such, at midnight on New Year’s Eve, Buddhist temple bells are rung 108 times, banishing the 108 worldly desires. This marks both a prayer for forgiveness for the past year, and a prayer for steadfastness in the next.

First Shrine Visit of the Year, Hatsumōde

On the first three days of the New Year, people flock to Shinto shrines, and many to Buddhist temples, for their first visit of the year, called Hatsumōde. Meiji Shrine in the center of Tokyo traditionally receives over 3 million visitors each year during the New Year’s holidays, but even small countryside shrines get plenty of visitors.

Visitors to shrines clap, bow, and say a brief prayer for the year. People often buy omikuji, little slips of paper picked out from a box with their fortunes for the year foretold. If they are worried that not all of their fortune is good, they can tie the paper to a tree or a wire hung at the shrine, and leave that undesirable fortune in the hands of the gods, carrying the good fortune home in their hearts.

As all their previous year’s omamori (good luck charms), daruma dolls, and household protective amulets were brought to shrines to be burned at the end of December, people buy new charms for such things as safety and protection for the new year, success in studies, or safe childbirth, new daruma for setting goals for the year, and new ema upon which to write their prayers.

Nengajo, New Year’s Greeting Postcards

On New Year’s Day, bundles of postcards are delivered to each house. These are sent by friends and associates containing words of thanks for past kindnesses, well-wishes, and yoroshiku-onegaishimasu — please, and thank you in advance — for kindnesses in the new year.

People spend time during the day nibbling on osechi-ryōri, reading over the various greetings, and remembering old friends. The cards are usually themed according to the animals of the Chinese zodiac, 2022 being the year of the Tiger.

TV Specials

A big event in many households is the yearly New Year’s Eve TV specials. The most famous by far is a good-natured singing contest, Kōhaku Uta Gassen. Musicians are divided into two teams, a red team composed of females, and a white team composed of males. The red and white division of teams gives the show its name, Kōhaku, meaning red and white.

NHK, the national TV broadcasting corporation, began airing this show from the year Japan got its first TVs, 1953. Musicians are chosen by invitation only, and performing on Kōhaku is considered quite an honor and even can be the highlight of one’s career. The spectacular lighting, costumes, and set design never disappoint.

At the end of the show, the audience, together with the judges, votes on the winning team.

Competing with Kōhaku for viewers is a bizarre show that is popular among many of the younger generation, called, Dauntaun no Gaki no Sukaiyaarahende! which defies translation.

On this year-end special, serious celebrities face off against several old-school comedians who are placed in various situations — on a bus, then in a school, or whatever the theme is that year — and the celebrities do and say outrageous things to make the comedians laugh.

If they laugh, which they inevitably do, people dressed in commando camouflage jump out and spank them with rubbery batons. The absurdity of all this is considered hilarious.

Japanese TV, truly unique, has to be seen to be believed.

This is by no means a complete list of New Year’s customs. Other traditions include making and eating delicious pounded sticky rice cakes called mochi, children flying kites in the clear breezy skies of winter, and eager shoppers hunting for “lucky bags” filled with mystery discounts at their favorite stores. In a small fishing port on the Izu Peninsula, on finds a unique New Year’s decoration welcoming the god of the New Year—Shiokatsuo, and ancient type of dried bonito. Even one’s first dream of the year is significant, but I think only in Japan does one hope it contains Mount Fuji, a hawk, or an eggplant.

By January 4th, people begin to go back to their normal routines, greeting coworkers and associates by saying akemashite-omedetō-gozaimasu, “Happy New Year,” and naturally, “For this year, too, please and thank you in advance,” kotoshi-mo, yoroshiku-onegaishimasu.

Sources:

https://maminyan.com/shogatsu/know/toshigamisama.html, https://www1.nhk.or.jp/kouhaku/, https://www.ntv.co.jp/gaki/, many years in Japan.

The post Japanese New Year — Gods, Symbolic Foods, and TV Extravaganzas first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.

Fall down seven times, get up eight times

Daruma dolls are the embodiment of the Japanese proverb, 七転び八起き, Nanakorobi, yaoki. Fall down seven times, get up eight times. They are a receptacle for our wishes, and they remind us to never give up striving to achieve our goals.

Daruma modeled after an ancient Buddhist priest

Daruma dolls are modeled after the 5th-century founder of Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma. It is said that he entered a cave near the famous Chinese Shaolin monastery where he meditated facing a wall for nine years. So dedicated was he that when he fell asleep while meditating, his anger drove him to cut off his eyelids. They fell to the ground, and tea bushes sprouted. Green tea was thereafter used by practitioners of Zen to keep themselves awake during meditation.

In the 12th century, along with Zen, Buddhist priest Eisai brought tea seeds to Japan where he cultivated the plants and, by and by, green tea’s popularity grew. But I digress.

Now lacking eyelids, Bodhidharma continued his meditation. As the years passed, his arms and legs fell off from disuse, and that leaves us with the shape of a Daruma doll.

The Daruma is rounded, so if it rocks over, it uprights itself. When we fail in our attempts to reach our goal, we should not give up, but we should be like a Daruma doll, righting ourselves and keeping on. As the proverb says:

Fall down seven times, get up eight times.

Daruma dolls

Papier-mâché Daruma dolls, just like we see today, began to be produced in the Edo era (1603-1867). They were painted red, as that has long been believed to be the color that wards off evil and disease. To make Daruma even more auspicious, the eyebrows and beard were sometimes painted in the shape of a tortoise or a crane, both symbols of long life. Sometimes other symbolic shapes were added to his features.

As the years passed, some Daruma were painted white — another lucky color. Then in the 20th century, things got wild. There were gold, green, and yellow Daruma — and today, anything goes. I have even seen Daruma dolls in the shape of Amabie, Japan’s Covid-19 guardian yōkai, or supernatural being.

When we buy a Daruma, the eyes are blank. As we set our goal, usually one that can be achieved within a year, we paint the left eye. When we reach our goal, we paint the right eye. The bigger the goal, the larger the Daruma we should use.

When we make our first visit to a shrine at the start of the new year, hatsumōde, we bring along our Daruma dolls to be burnt by the Shinto priest along with our household protection amulets and the last year’s omamori charms. Even if we did not achieve our goal, we still burn the old Daruma and buy a new one for a fresh start in the new year.

How about getting a Daruma doll to mark your goals for the coming year? Every day, as you look into its incomplete face, your determination will be renewed to keep on track.

And it seems you don’t need to visit Japan to buy your own. Daruma dolls are being sold on none other than Amazon.*

*This affiliate link means that if you were to buy something on Amazon through that link, I would get a small portion of the sale price at no extra cost to you.

The post Daruma Dolls for Setting and Achieving Goals—A Japanese Twist on New Year’s Resolutions first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.

According to a Japanese proverb, your first dream of the year is filled with portent

一富士二鷹三茄子, Ichi Fuji, Ni Taka, San Nasubi

First, Mount Fuji

Second, Hawks

Third, Eggplants

This proverb implies that when these three things — Mount Fuji, hawks, and eggplants — appear in one’s first dream of the year, 初夢 hatsuyume, they foretell a year of good fortune. Mount Fuji augurs the best fortune, then hawks, then eggplants.

Like many things Japanese, at first glance, this proverb seems inexplicable. To gain understanding, one must look into it a bit to get a grasp of how these things are connected and why Mount Fuji, hawks, and eggplants (of all things!) are auspicious.

Theories as to why

Our first theory relates to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Edo era (1603–1867), and Japan’s third great unifier. He hailed from Suruga, now Shizuoka Prefecture, home of the magnificent and revered, Mount Fuji. Ieyasu loved hawks and kept many which he used for hunting, and he was fond of eating the first eggplants harvested each year.

Because of being three of the mighty Shogun Tokugawa’s favorite things, these things became auspicious portents.

Our second theory relies on homonyms. 

Fuji 富士, is read similarly to 不死 meaning “no death” and by extension, long life. Its reading is also similar to 無事 “without incident,” meaning peace, safety, and security. 

Taka, the Japanese word for hawk, is read the same as 高, “tall, high, or lofty.”

Nasu, eggplant, is read the same as 成す, meaning “to succeed in, to accomplish.”

All these are easily wished-for outcomes for anyone’s new year.

We also must not forget that Mount Fuji has been considered sacred since ancient times, the mountain itself being a Shinto deity. 

Auspicious, indeed.

When to dream

Just so you know when to dream of eggplants, the first dream of the year is considered to occur on the night of January first, or back in the old days before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in the late 19th century, the night of Setsubun, the day preceding the first day of spring.

But what if your first dream of the New Year is a nightmare? 

Don’t worry, there’s a solution. 

Upon awakening, draw a picture of the Treasure Ship bearing the Seven Lucky Gods, and set it adrift upon a stream. The image will drift away, carrying your bad fortune with it.

References:

https://jpnculture.net/hatsuyume/, https://kotowaza-dictionary.jp/k0964/, https://boxil.jp/beyond/a5493/

The post For a Healthy Happy Year, Dream of Mount Fuji, Hawks, or Eggplants first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.

A Unique Kagoshima Tradition

Bonfires for Onekko, 鬼火たき

Onekko, or Demon Burning, is a yearly custom unique to Kagoshima Prefecture. In other prefectures throughout Japan, a similar tradition known as Dondoyaki, どんど焼き, or Sagichō, 左義長 is held.

At the end of the year, each neighborhood builds a pillar of bamboo in a large open space, usually a rice field. It is left to dry until January 7th (or the following Sunday), when people bring their bamboo and pine New Year’s decorations to burn in a giant bonfire. 

The roaring bonfire and the loud popping of the burning bamboo are believed to banish evil spirits. While the flames reach the heavens, prayers are offered for good health and bountiful harvests. When the fire is reduced to embers, children and adults roast mochi rice cakes on sticks like marshmallows. And adults enjoy a warming beverage of sweet potato shochu mixed with hot water.

At the end of the evening, people might even carry embers back home to protect their houses against misfortune and the return of demons. 

For another demon banishing custom, take a minute to read about Setsubun.

Reference:

かごしま検定―鹿児島観光・文化検定公式テキストブック

The post Giant Bonfires Banish Evil and Demons first appeared on More Than Tokyo and is written by Diane Tincher.