Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1910-12-30

W if landed in Tokyo in q SSSzI&;
VI mid-December, would NgTeSH3Z
find crowds of her - IN
brothers and sisters in spirit throng- X
ing in shops decorated with the most ~N ~
attractive symbolic concentrations
and displaying with great skill the MAAIh
things most requisite for the coming EMEEEHl
holiday time. At night along the kK1 So
thoroughfares the stranger would see W8WfI
rultitudes crowded about street booths N&HY~ Ia
to purchase the wares exposed there, XW III
All which are significant of the New " IN
Year festival and nothing else. Every XXI
where the avenue and by-ways would kANsTN
he illuminated with of shining go
enteras bearing trade devices and E@S
family crests, all suspended from the
oW caves of stores and houses. Never ~
are the streets of Japanese cities and e
towns SO enlivened with gayly dressed +
crowds and busy traffckers 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
buster in completing the thorough sweeping 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
busy getting ready for 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 us.
Outside the houses symbolic decoration has
full sway, and transforms the thoroughfares into
gayy colored and evergreen avenues. The tree
less streets are turned, for the time being, into
Yistas of swaying bamboo and pine trees. Before
each house entrance, according to the tenants
purses and taste, stands kind OF archway. It's
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 a rugged old age) well
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 (ucky numbers). The rope recalls one OF
the most revered and poetic traditions of the Jap
aneSe past The sun goddess the ancestress or
the imperial house of the empire, was angered
with her brother in the ancient days, and In re-
Venge hid herself in cave Darkness then pre-
vailed in heaven and over the earth. The gods,
in their perpexity, 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 selfchosen 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 ornamenting these doorway arches is a scar
let lobster, embedded among some branches OF
bush whose old leaves remain unshed until after
the young leaves have bEdded The lobsters
crooked body tells of old age bent with years.
while the bush branches around it show how
parents remain even wbEe children and chill
oreRs children may come into being. In the
same decoration fronds Of fp&p are placed whose
pairs Of leaves symbolic Welded life. The Or
ahge, whose color brighfazA the clustered SYM
OotS, bears name which, as pun means gen
eratons" and tells Of xan4ly perpetuity. Sea-
weed is there, too, aienAor1al of good fortune
commemoratng also tbs prehistoric conquest OF
horea by the Empress Tnge> Her troops were IN
Danger Of defeat becaase thkir horses on the ko-
Leah seashore were starving from lack OF food
but by inspiration, she or3ered seaweed to De
pucked from the waters of the beach and given
u me horses, who then were so invigorated tnat
lhey carried their riders 10 glorious victory
Gohet white bands of paper wave over the gar
'ahas Of the doorway arches symbolic OF the an
Vieht offerings that have the favor OF the
myriad gods"
After busy weeks of preparation at last the
V'0Slng day of the year comes. On New years
eve the whole country is astir and every place
tnat needs light for beauty is frightened
All through that night the people stay out OF pea
=, =. see the old year pass and to welcome the ne"
merchants do not go to bed until the dawn OF
new Years day. All the business accounts OF
,ne closing year must be settled that night, ana
~ every sense of the word the year be begun
q. a'eSh among those Japanese who are guided Dy
rle Old social order. All things are made new.
Dad luck bad feelings, unsettled debts. are All
" De done away with and new chapter OF hIe
opened. filed with happy prospects The COM
pe<e renewal of old-fashioned Japanese lie at
ne New Year is well shown in one OF the names
'NS' me day bears. San Gan. 1.-THE Three Begin