Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1910-12-30

e"~ESMS y 1t begins early in De-
TS cember The Ameri- e.
\8J Christmas shopper ~
NJ II landed in Tokyo In a. 5AslI1&
~ mid-December, would EESHSH&
find crowds Of her ~ ~
brothers and sisters in spirit throng -~
Ing In shops decorated with the most ~ nNS
attractive symbolic ornamentatons
and displaying with great skill the 1s4sSlh
things most requisite for the coming HMGk4H
holiday time. At night, along the kB1 AZ
thoroughfares, the stranger would see WRfBh
multitudes crowded about street booths @RVx "A
to purchase the wares exposed there W@ M
all which are significant of the New " IN
Year festival, and nothing else. Every I /2I
where the avenue and by-ways would &SgH
be Illuminated with rows of shining E1S&,
lanterns, bearing trade devices and E1S
family crests all suspended from the
low caves of stores and houses Never -
are the streets Of Japanese cities and e
towns SO envened with gayly dressed !
crowds and busy traffickers as during ~
the time OF our own alien yet kindred
Christmas excitement
The specific preparations for the
New Year begin about the thirteenth
OF the last month. Then, within every
house in the empire. general clean
Ing up takes place. A fresh, green
pranch OF the bamboo tree with its leaves and
twigs to symbolic good fortune is used as
duster in completing the thorough sweepine AT
this time the soft rice mats of which the floor
Ing In Japanese homes is made are renewed in
order that the callers at the New Year may be
received where they enjoy a spotless footing
AT this time, too, all matrons and maids are
busy getting ready for on New Years day
kimonos that shall have trace in them Of the
vanished past To old and young the daily theme
'of thought and talk is the coming New Year."
full as much as christmas" is to u.s.
Outside the houses symbolic decoration has
full sway. and transforms the thoroughfares into
gayy colored and evergreen avenues. The tree
less streets turned, for the time being, into
vistas of swaying bamboo and pine trees. Before
each house entrance, according to the tenants
purses and taste, stands kind Of archway Its
pine branches, supposedly male and female, on
the right and left and the tall triple bamboo
shafts (both trees symbolic of longevity that Is
of hardness that has borne the storms and
struggles of long life into rugged old age) vel
come the visitor. Over head, spanning the space
between these uprights of the arch, is decorat-
ed rope always of rice straw having on 1t various
pendants arranged in series of seven, five and
three Qucky numbers). The rope recalls one of
the revered and poetic traditions of the jap
anese past. The sun goddess, the ancestress OF
the imperial house of the empire, angered
with her brother in the ancient days. and in re-
venge hid herself in Darkness then pre-
vailed in heaven and over the earth The gods,
in their perplexity, tried to induce her to come
out of her hiding place. But in vain did they
appear. until. IN dance they had arranged. she
induced by taunt that touched her vanity
to open the door of her sefchosen dungeon. One
of the gods then drew her forth, and to prevent
her running back into the cave, stretched a straw
rope across the entrance. The perpetual shining
of the sun. secured thereby, remains memorial
ized in the garlanded barrier hanging above each
Japanese portal at New Years time.
Among the most noticeable and significant cb-
1ects ornamenting these doorway arches is a
let lobster, embedded among branches of
he'd ntt aft
the young leaves have budded The lobster's
crooked body tells Of old age bent with years.
while the bush branches around 1t show how
parents remain even while children and chill
dren's children may come Into being. In the
same decoration fronds of fern are placed, whose
pairs of leaves symbolic welded life. The or
ange whose color brightens the clustered sym
bols bears name which, pun means gen
erations, and tells of family perpetuity. Sea-
weed is there, too, as q memorial of good fortune
commemorating also the prehistoric conquest of
Korea by the Empress lingo. Her troops were in
danger of defeat because their horses on the Ko-
rean seashore were starving from lack of food.
But, by inspiration. she ordered seaweed to be
pucked from the waters of the beach and given
to the horses. who then 80 invigorated that
they carried their riders to glorious victory
Gohel white bands of paper wave over the gar
lands of the doorway arches symbolic of the an
cient offerings that have the favor OF the
myriad gods"
After busy weeks of preparation at last the
closing day of the year comes On New Years
the whole country is astir and every place
that needs light for beauty is frightened.
All through that night the people stay out OF bed
to see the old year pass and to welcome the new.
Merchants do not go to bed until the dawn Of
New Years day. All the business accounts Of
the closing year must be settled that night, and
in every sense of the word the year be begun
afresh among those Japanese who are guided by
the old social order. All things are made new
Bad luck, bad feelings, unsettled debts are all
TO be done away with and new chapter of life
opened, filed with happy prospects The COM
plpte renewal of old-fashioned Japanese life at
the New Year is well shown in one OF the names