CHAPTER XXI.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.