The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1910-12-29

w it landed In Tokyo In 81 wv
~ mid-December, would ZES1SH2
find crowds of her - ~
brothers and sisters in spirit throng- 100 .
ing in shops decorated with the most ~ *
attractive symbolic concentrations
and displaying with great skill the n@IE
things most requisite for the coming k4ASE5EkXkNN
holiday time At night, along the N1 ~
thoroughfares, the stranger would WMI
multitudes crowded about street booths WAX<
to purchase the exposed there, wa "A
all which significant of the New Xxx
Year festival, and nothing else. Every IZ&1
where the and by-ways would TME1
be illuminated with rows Of shining Hg&
lanterns, bearing trade devices and w.,
family crests, all suspended from the
low Of stores and houses. Never ~
the streets of Japanese cities and
towns so enlivened 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
| branch of the bamboo tree with it's leaves and
| twigs to symbolic good fortune, is used as a
| buster in completing the thorough sweeping. At
this time the soft rice mats of which the floor
| ing in Japanese homes is made renewed in
| order that the callers at the New Year may be
received where they can enjoy spotless footing
At this time, too, all matrons and maids
| busy getting ready for wear on New Years day
| kimonos that shall have no 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 coored and evergreen avenues The tree
less streets are turned, for the time being into
!
each house entrance, according to the tenants
purses and taste, stands kind of archway. Its
pine branches, supposedly male and female,
the right and left, and the tall triple bamboo
shafts Cloth trees symbolic of longevity that is
of hardness that has borne the storms and
struggles Of long life into rugged old age) well
come the visitor. Over head, spanning the space
between these up1ights of the arch, is decorat
ed rope always of rice straw, having on it various
pendants arranged in series of seven, five and
three Oucly numbers). The rope recalls one of
the most 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
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
was induced by taunt that touched her vanity
! to open the door of her sef-chosen dungeon. One
of the gods then drew her forth, and, to prevent
her running back into the cave, stretched straw
rope across the entrance. The perpetual shining
of the sun, secured thereby, remains memorial.
lied in the garlanded barrier hanging above each
! japanese portal at New Years time.
Among the most noticeable and significant cb.
| jects olnamentng these doorway arches is scar
| let lobster embedded among some branches of a
| bush whose old leaves remain unshed until after
| the young leaves have budded. The lobster s
| crooked body tells of old age bent with years,
while the bush branches around it show how
parents remain even while children and chill,
| dren's children may 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, as pun, means "gen.
! erations," and tells of family perpetuity. Sea
| weed is there too, memorial of good fortune
! concentrating 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
| plucked from the waters of the beach and given
to the horses, who then were so 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 1.-THE
| myriad gods"
| After busy weeks Of preparation at last the
| closing day of the year comes On New fearIs
| eve the whole country is astir and every place
that needs light for or 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
| VIC no huci n