Are you ready for Otsukimi (Traditional Moon Viewing) night today? Unfortunately it's not clear weather in Tokyo area now so I don't think it is possible to see the Fifteenth Night's Moon for Otsukimi tonight. However you can enjoy the moon on this Saturday instead of tonight.
The truth is that technically this Saturday (17th) is the full moon day of mid autumn, and the moon tonight is not at the full. Then why tonight is called Otsukimi (Traditional Moon Viewing) Day?
Actually the Otsukimi Day was decided based on Japanese old lunar calendar and it is always August 15th of the old calendar. Since it's a lunar calendar, it is enough close to the schedules of real waxing and waning of the moon, but not completely fits. Sometimes Otsukimi Day is at full moon, and sometimes there is a little lag from the full moon day.
This year, 2016, there is two days difference between Otsukimi Day and the full moon day. So if the middle autumn moon is not available for you tonight, you can enjoy seeing the full moon on this Saturday. Moreover, there is still time to get Otsukimi-dango (Otsukimi rice-cakes) for the full moon day!
I'd like to continue the topic of "Otsukimi(Moon Viewing)" which I introduced on my previous post on September 11th.
Japanese people had believed that rabbits are living on the moon in old days. Ancient people thought the shadow shape on the surface of the moon looked like a rabbit making Mochi(sticky rice cake) in a traditional way and thought that was a proof rabbits were on the moon.
Even now many people still say they can see a rabbit shape on the moon's surface. Thus rabbits are often associated with the moon in Japan especially in designs related to "Otstukimi" in fall as in the illustration above.
The zoomed photos of the moon wasn’t my own photos this time, but it was taken by one of my friends last year , at "Otsukimi Night" (luckily last Otsukimi Day was a very clear night and the full moon was very beautiful). Then I layered a drawing showing how Japanese people see a rabbit on the moon on the right hand side photo.
I have heard people in other countries describe the shadow on the moon such as “man’s profile”, "reading old woman", or “a crab”. What do you see on the moon? With the drawing of the rabbit, do you think there is something in what ancient Japanese people thought of?
Coming September 15th is a day of full moon and people have a traditional "Otsukimi" night in Japan. Since old times, it has been said that the moon in middle autumn is the most beautiful moon of the year, fall is also the most important harvest season, thus people combine them and it became one of the major seasonal event called "Otsukimi (Moon Viewing)" or "Fifteenth Night (of the old Japanese lunar calendar)".
On "Otsukimi" Day, people would display round rice-cakes and Japanese Miscanthus sinensis grass (Susuki) as offerings for the moon as in the lower right hand side photo. The rice cakes are usually plain without any flavor and piled like a pyramid. It is called "Otsukimi Dango". The round shape of them represents the "full-moon".
However this event is actually becoming more miner as a seasonal event as people started to enjoy Halloween more. Well, piled candies may be better than piled plain rice-cakes, especially for kids, but I hope this traditional nice event to enjoy the beauty of the moon will continue!
July 30th (in 2016) was "Doyo-no-ushi Day(Ox-day of Doyo)" in Japan. “Ox-day” came from Japanese traditional calendar because in old times Japanese people counted date by 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac, the same as Monday, Tuesday...and so on are used for the 'week'. Thus Ox-day comes around once a 12days, and “Doyo” is a name of a period came from ancient Chinese calendar. The Doyo period originally exists in each season so technically there are one or two Ox-days of Doyo in each season.
However only for summer Japanese people keep it in their calendars because there is a custom of eating eels on this "Doyo-no-ushi Day" in summer. It might sound funny but it has been believed among Japanese people that eating eels on the day would work well against fatigue caused by summer heat because eels are very nutritious and good for developing one's stamina.
So, during the Doyo period in summer, many of Japanese rush to eat eels. The typical way to eat eels on the day is grilled eels on the rice with sweet soy-sauce. Food shops sell lot's of grilled eels as you can see in the lower photo and all traditional eel restaurants as shown in the upper photos get busy, then on the "Ox-day of Doyo" it reaching its peak on the "Ox-da of Doyo".
The custom seems like a very old tradition based on some serious reason, but it is said that actually it was a made-up trend during the late Samurai-era in the 18th century. There was a famous historical herbalist named Gennai Hiraga(1728-1780), he was a talented person who wrote light novels and invented devices. Apparently one day a shop owner of grilled eels with declining his sales asked for help and Gennai advised to advertise “It’s Doyo-no-ushi Day. Eat eels!” and it became a big trend in summer. At that time people already knew eels were good nutritious food, and the advertisement probably caught the attention of those who felt exhausted under the summer heat.
Since then, it came to stay as a seasonal custom in Japan. Maybe eating eels really works well against fatigue. If you are wondering about the effect, please try it on the 30th!
March 20th was the Spring Equinox Day. Traditionally, the seven days including the Equinox Day in both spring and fall are named “Ohigan Week”. The direct translation of “Ohigan” is “the other shore”, it means “the world of the dead”. For this year, 2016, "Ohigan Week" started on March 17th and ended March 23rd.
In Japanese traditional custom, it is a week for people to visit their family graves or to pray for their deceased family/ancestors at home. When families get together during this week in March to visit graves or to pray for their ancestors at home, one kind of traditional sweets(in the left photo) is usually prepared.
Commonly, it has three kinds of flavors, which are sweet sesame, sweet soy powder(Kinako), and sweet mashed red beans(Anko). It’s not a spring seasonal sweets, because it is also served during the Fall Equinoctial Week.
However these sweets do have seasonal names. It is a unique feature, as it changes the name for the other season. In spring, it is usually called “Botamochi” and it is said that the name represents Botan-flower(Peony flower) which is a popular spring flower shown in the upper right hand side photo. On the other hand, in fall it is usually called “Ohagi” and the name came from Hagi-flower(Japanese bush clover), which is a typical fall flower in Japan and it is shown in the lower right hand side photo.
Nowadays not all Japanese people change the name according to the season, but I think it is a nice way to keep the sense of the season.
It's March 14th, which is called White Day in Japan! As I wrote previously last month on this blog, White Day is the day for boys/men to give return gifts to the girls/women who gave Valentine's Day gifts to them. Therefore many shops sell small gift items before the White Day, and shopping malls and department stores have a special corner for it as you can see in the photos. In towns you may see a long line in front of some popular sweets shops and cake shops in this season.
So, working men who received "Giri Choco (Social Chocolates gift)" at work may have the same stress for the White Day as working women for Valentine's Day to choose nice return gifts. However, finding a nice return gift for the day is not always men's task.
Many men who are in manager class or higher usually receive many chocolates on Valentine's Day from women who are under his charge, but generally these men wouldn't enjoy going out to find many small gifts in women's items sections or cute sweets sections. Moreover some of them have no idea on what would be proper return gifts, so and therefore they entrust the task to their wives. For this reason customers at White Day gift corners are not only men. Wives also go there to buy nice gifts instead of their husbands.
It can be a stressful task for the wives, too, but apparently some wives are saying that it is a good opportunity to keep a watchful eye on husbands' inappropriate human relationships at work. Oops, hope their husbands' are "shiro" (means "white" or "innocence" in Japanese) from the suspicion!
I introduced Japanese traditional Girls' Festival (Hina-Matsuri) on March 3rd previously on my two blogs (this "Yuko's Japan Gide" and in "Yuko Takayama") and I'd like to talk about this traditional event a little more.
The Hina-Dolls (special dolls set for Hina-Matsuri) are seasonal displays same as Christmas trees. So people take the dolls out of their closets only for this season. It's been two days since the Girls' Festival (Hina-Matsuri) Day, how long do people keep displaying the dolls?
I guess most people have already put them back into their closet, even though Hina-Dolls can be seen in shops' display and exhibitions. Actually, since old times it has been said that if a family delays putting Hina-Dolls back into their closet after the Hina-Matsuri Day, their daughters would also have a delay in their marriages. Therefore as soon as the Hana-Matsuri day is finished, people clean up the display and put the dolls back into their closets.
Of course nowadays people know it is just a superstition. However, many parents take their children's late marriages as a serious problem, therefore they might as well put the dolls back into the closet, though daughters themselves may not care about it.
I have an episode about this superstition in my family. My sister is a single working woman and living near my parents. One day my mother visited her house and found a small Hina-Dolls set displaying in her house. It was in January, so my mother said "Oh you are such an early-bird! Already displaying for Girls' Festival!" My sister replied "Nope, I display them there throughout the year because they are so pretty." At that moment my mother screamed and told my sister "Put them back into your closet NOW!" I guess even today breaking the superstition could be a threat to some people.
March 3rd is the traditional Girls' Festival Day called "Hina-Matsuri" in Japan. It is one of
the major seasonal events though it is not a national holiday. People
display special dolls set called "Hina-dolls" which represent a prince and a princess, a happily married couple, with their attendants, and the imperial court people. The display is decorated with peach flowers and offerings such as diamond-shaped
colorful rice-cakes (Hishimochi) or a special rice-crackers (Hina-Arare)
shown in the lower right hand side photos to wish girls' healthy growth and happy marriage.
Most families who have
daughters celebrate this day with a kind of Sushi called Chirashi-zushi, clam soup,
and white opaque non-alcohol drink called Ama-Zake (Sweet Sake) which is made of sake lees and sugar.
Regarding the Hina-dolls, the traditional full set is pretty big. It is displayed on 7 stairs covered by a red cloth shown in the left hand side photo. Prince and Princess couple is put on the top of the stairs, the second step from the top is for three maids, the third is for five musicians, and there are ministers, soldiers, dishes and furniture on rest of the steps.
However, nowadays it is difficult for many families to have a full set of "Hina-dolls" because it requires a big space in the house. Various smaller sets are available. as long as a doll set includes a prince and princess wearing ancient noble's formal kimono as shown in the upper right hand side photo, it is considered "Hina-dolls". Therefore, size-wise and price-wise there is a wide range of "Hina-dolls". A gorgeous full set can be several hundreds of thousand Yen (several thousand dollars) or more.
When a family has a baby girl, they usually prepare "Hina-dolls" for their baby when the baby has her first "Hina-Matsuri" celebration. Sometimes the parents buy the dolls or it can be the grand-parents buying the dolls for their grand daughter to wish her healthy growth and happiness.
What happens if the parents have a second daughter? And a third daughter? Will the family skip buying "Hina-dolls" again? Actually many girls would have their own "Hina-dolls" in these days. Since the dolls are usually bought for a baby girl at her first Hina-Matsuri to wish her health and happiness, it seems that many parents think it's better to be fair for each daughter.
Thus a family may keep increasing the number of "Hina-dolls" set if they have many daughters. Moreover the mother might keep her own "Hina-dolls" set in their house, too. Then the dolls can occupy a quite big space in their closets. However, birth rate is decreasing in Japan to fewer than two children per a family, so probably most people are not worried about the space problem.
Anyway, happy "Hina-Matsuri"!!
