Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1910-12-30

~ mid december would zASS$zzSs
find crowds of her ~ ~
brothers and sisters in spirit throng- @e1TAy
ing in shops decorated with the most IY * :;
attractive symbolic ornamentations V
and displaying with great skill the ~Ah
things most requisite for the coming ENE%ITI
holiday time At night along the kfNE
thoroughfares, the stranger would see GkIRf -
multitudes crowded about street booths WH4(
to purchase the wares exposed there VII M
all which are significant of the New W IN
Year festival, and nothing else. Every /AI
where the avenue and byways would Ef9HA
be Illuminated with rows of shining WINs
lanterns, bearing trade devices and 49,
family crests, all suspended from the
low caves of stores and houses Never -
are the streets of Japanese cities and g
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. a general clean
ing up takes place. fresh, green
branch of the bamboo tree, with its leaves and
twfgs 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 NAV 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
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 us
Outside the houses symbolic decoration has
full sway, and transforms the thoroughfares into
gayly colored and evergreen avenues The tree
less streets are turned, for the time being into
vistas of swaying bamboo and pine trees Before
each house entrance according IN
purses and taste. stands kind of archway. It's
pine branches, supposedly male and female,
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) 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 Cucky 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, was angered
with her brother in the ancient days, and in
venge hid herself in a 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
induced by taunt that touched her vanity
to open the door OF her self-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 ornamentng these doorway arches liz scar
let lobster, embedded among some branehes of a
bush whose old leaves remain unshed until after
the young leaves have brdded. Tue Holsters
crooked body tells of old age bent with years,
while the bush branches around it show how
parents remain even wb1e children and chill
drens children may como into being. In the
same decoration fronds Of fV<gi are placed, whose
pairs of leaves symbolic welded life. The
ange, whose color brighrGA the clustered sym
bos, bears a name which. as pun, means gen
erations," and tells of family perpetuity. Sea
weed is there too, as cuemorial of good fortune,
concentrating also tee prehistoric conquest Of
Korea by the Empress Jingc> Her troops were in
danger of defeat because THAR horses on the Ko-
rean seashore were starving from lack Of food
But, by inspiration she or4ered 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 - glorious victory
Gohei 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 co1nes. On New Years
eve the whole country is astir and every place
that needs light for use 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
Nav he busiuess accounts of