Japan's New Year Traditions

About this book

Written and produced in Japan by Japanese author Aki Wakamatsu (Takikawa TOKOTOKO Kids LLC) — a complete guide to Japan's New Year season, made in the country where the season is a way of life.

For five weeks, Japan performs the most complete New Year in the world. Houses are cleaned for a god and decorated with pine, rope and mirror cakes of rice. The year is crossed on a bowl of noodles and 108 temple bells. Then everything is done for the first time — first sunrise, first dream, first water, first writing, first shrine visit — while a feast cooked in advance is eaten from tiered boxes, children receive money in bright envelopes, and a whole country argues, prefecture by prefecture, about what belongs in the New Year soup.

Japan's New Year Traditions gathers 200 of those customs in one uniform format, following the season from December 13 to January 20: the great clean and the decorations, New Year's Eve, the first three days, osechi and ozoni, greetings, gifts and parlour games, the regional New Years of the snow country, the islands and the old castle towns, the Little New Year of the farmers, and the season's long ending through coming of age, the first workdays and the last thank-you letter. Each entry tells you what happens, when and where, how to join or how to watch — followed by the custom's history and its place in the season's order, plus a practical Good to Know note.

Whether you will be in Japan for the bells, live there and want to finally understand your neighbours' January, or are keeping a Japanese New Year far from Japan, this is the volume that puts the whole season — all 200 customs of it — in one place.