Rick Cogley's w3Place

Japan New Year's Culture

Quaintly Analog Greeting Cards - Nengajo

In Japan, it's not Christmas but rather New Years which is the Big Holiday at year end. One of the staples of this holiday is the "Nengajo" - a year end greeting card that gets sent to your friends, family, co-workers, and anyone who you are indebted to. It's a nice way to say hello, too, and quaintly analog. Here's our 2003 nengajo, and yep, that's me, my two daughters and wife Akiko in the picture. They are holding an irritable baby Lion (even though it's the year of the Sheep!) for which we were taxed 700 yen at Fuji Safari Park during the summer -

Cogley 2003 Nengajo

It says, in so many words, happy new year "kinga shinnen", and has a short greeting on it - "kotoshimo yoroshiku onegaishimasu" - thanking the recipient for their kindness in the past. There are even several software packages you can use to edit your cards and address list - FudeMame, AtenaShokunin - letting you tick down who sent what and when, but purists argue against these because they take away the purifying chore of actually writing everything down.

Nengajo are sent around mid-December, and even have a Lotto number on the back - you can win Fabulous Prizes by searching the New Year's newspaper "Nengajo Lotto Winners List" for the numbers on the backs of the cards you receive. Pretty good deal, though after 16 years in Japan I have yet to win a single Camera, Commemorative Stamp Set or any Household Good. No matter, it's the Journey that counts. I love the concept of Nengajo, and the software to help with it is a godsend for those of us who aren't so hot with Japanese characters!

A Time of Renewal, Refreshment

In Japan, at least, the New Year holiday is thought of as an auspicious occasion, and is as such marked by ceremonies and rituals relating to sweeping out the old, and bringing in the new. Renewal is on everyone's mind as they busily prepare for the holiday - settling up old debts, cleaning house, finishing work so that bad fortune does not follow you into the new year.

Getting Ready: House-Cleaning and Decorating - Susuharai and Kadomatsu

My home in Yokohama is no exception, since we are always working hard preparing for the holiday. There's a lot of house maintenance to take care of, such as changing lightbulbs, oiling hinges and sweeping where we usually don't. The traditional meaning of the "susuharai" (lit. soot-sweeping) or "oosoji" (lit. big-cleaning) is spiritual - clean your house, and yourself inside and out, purifying and making ready for renewal.

	Once the house is clean, special decorations of pine, bamboo or straw called "kadomatsu" and "shimenawa" are set up on the house gate, over the door, and even attached to car bumpers! The kadomatsu is thought to bring good luck, and the shimenawa is thought to ward off evil. You can buy them at the local supermarket or shrine, and there are sometimes shimenawa-making parties at the civic halls of local neighborhood associations.
	In the end, a lot of preparation goes into Oshogatsu, and this is usually finished by New Year's Eve. After that, most people working here take a few days off. At least in the time I've been here since the late 80s, Japanese businesses have traditionally always been closed from the 1st to the 3rd of January, so people usually stock up before the year end holiday. That practice has changed somewhat these last few years, with retailers catering to the public's desire to have stores be open during the holiday.

Special Oshogatsu Dishes

One can say that Oshogatsu is usually spent with family, watching special TV shows or doing traditional things. Food plays an important role and there's lots of good food to be had at Shogatsu. I heard somewhere that "the food is simple", so as to give the lady of the house a break. Um, I think someone (else) should tell my wife this ... she spends a couple of days preparing the food for New Years Day, called "osechi", and then we always have a large reunion or get-together on January 2nd for the whole extended family. This is also major - my mother-in-law commandeers the other female relatives to assist. The results are universally spectacular.

However, probably the first traditional Oshogatsu dish is "toshi-koshi-soba" (lit. year-passing buckwheat noodles) - which is eaten on New Year's Eve at the passing of the old year. The osechi ryori comes in the morning of New Year's day, and includes a lot of small dishes served on lacquerware - sweet black beans, sticky fish with soy and sesame, okazuko yellow fish eggs, red and white fish bricks or cakes called kamaboko, sweet chestnuts called kurikinton, wrapped fish bread called datemaki and many others. As a nod to my American background, my wife always gets me some nice roast beef as well (thank heavens for that, too). The one I really like is ozoni - nice clear-broth soup with pounded rice cakes called omochi inside. This tastes great.

Incidentally, there are always a inauspicious number of deaths during the holiday season which are due to people, especially the elderly and younger children, choking on omochi. It's very sticky stuff, and hard to bite, so you have to be extra careful eating it. I remember this news about someone sucking a stuck mochi out with a vacuum cleaner. Wow...

Even the household Gods get special food - most traditional houses have an altar for the ancestors' funeral tablets, and during Oshogatsu, families put offerings there of omochi, dried persimmons, mandarin oranges or other items. What goes on the altar varies by region.

Oshogatsu Activities

At the stroke of midnight, temples around the country sound their great "tsuri-gane" bells (the one in the picture at left is Todaiji's, and is one of the biggest bells in the world) 108 times in a ceremony called "joya-no-kane". The number 108 is significant, because in Buddhism it is believed that man has 108 different sins, and listening to the tolling of the bells, and reflection on those sins can help absolve them. The sound of the bells is quite relaxing, personally, and I always feel like New Years has really come. Try a neat Macromedia Shockwave application here, which lets you drag and release the wooden hammer to toll the bell, and lists up the 108 sins for you. They're in Japanese, so if you can't read them, you'll have to use some zen to reflect on what they might be.

Some really energetic sorts stay up all night to watch the first sunrise - hatsu-hi-no-de - and for me, once or twice was enough because of the freezing cold. The best places in my area are usually on the beaches near Enoshima, or on mountains in the area.

In the morning, we only eat traditional osechi after saying our formal New Year greetings to everyone around and many families would also say a prayer to the family ancestors at the home altar. After breakfast, we go to the local shrine (not temple: those are for funerals!) for our hatsumode - first prayers - and make our wishes for the New Year. At the Shrine - ours is called Gorei Jinja - we take our old good-luck charms and pile them up in a designated area - they will later be blessed by the priests and then burned. After our prayers, we usually get new good-luck charms called "omamori", and then get a take-kuji lottery stick to see what our fortune is going to be. No matter what it says - good luck this year or not so, we fold it and tie it to a special area for that.

For the Kids

By this time, the kids can't wait to get home, since they get otoshidama - money - from the relatives! This is usually handed over after the kids say their New Years greetings properly.

At first, I had mixed feelings about this practice - "how crass can you be" but if there's one thing I've learned it's that tolerance is a good thing when you live in another culture. The cash comes neatly wrapped in a colorful otoshidama bukuro envelope, and moms usually put it away for their child in a savings account that vests when they are in college or so, but the kids like to extract some of it and buy the latest toy or game.

A game that is played by most every Japanese child and children growing up here, is Karuta. Karuta is a card game, with traditional sayings printed on one set of cards, each with one relevant hiragana letter designated, and another set of cards with pictures that relate to the saying. If there were an English version, it might start with the reader saying "a stitch in time saves... NINE" and the contestants scramble to find the card with a picture that relates to that saying amongst the many spread across the floor. In the end, the one who collects the most is the winner! There are versions for kids, and adults alike, and many kids learn proverbs and sayings by actively competing in this way.
	Another traditional fun activity is Takoage (lit. Kite-raising) - colorful paper kites like this on on the left are put up by kids (and usually dads or grandfathers) everywhere in Japan. Some people still make them, and there are sometimes get-togethers to make kites at the local elementary school or community center.

All in all, Oshogatsu is a very special time of year for me and people all over Japan. I find myself looking forward to its colorful traditions very fondly, every year end. Please look me up, if you want to talk about Japan or ask questions!