The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1910-12-30


branch of the bamboo tree, with its 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 are 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 are
busy getting ready for on New Years day
Nmonos 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 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 a 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 (ucly numbers). The rope recalls one OF
the most revered and poetic traditions of the Jap
anese past The goddess, the ancestress OF
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 perplexty, tried to induce her to come
out of her hiding place. But in vain did they
appear, until, in a. dance they had arranged, she
was 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 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 budded The Holsters
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 placed, whose
pairs OF leaves symbolic welded life. The or
ange whose color brghtens the clustered SYM
bols, bears name which, pun, means gen
erations" and tells of family perpetuity Sea-
weed is there, too, a memorial of good fortune.
commemoratng 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 starving from lack of food.
But, by lnSplraJlOn, Sno ordered SedWeeQ 10 De
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 the gar
lands of the doorway arches symbolic of the an
Client offerings that have won the favor of the
myriad gods"
After busy weeks Of preparation at last the
closing day of the year comes. On New Years
eve the whole country is astir and every place
that needs light for use 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
10 be done away with and new chapter Of life
opened, filled with happy prospects. The COM
plete renewal Of old-fsshioned Japanese life at
the New Year is well shown in one Of the names
that the day bears San Gan, "The Three Begin