on Daruma dolls and wishes

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Marjorie

One of my officemates hail from Takasaki, Gunma. As omiyage to us after the holidays, he gave each of us a daruma doll.

Representing a famous Zen monk, the daruma doll is a good luck charm usually bought during new year. This tradition of having the daruma doll as good luck charm was started at the Shorinzan Daruma Temple (少林山達磨寺, Shōrinzan Darumaji) in Takasaki several centuries back and has since spread across temples of Japan. (info source: www.japan-guide.com)

The daruma is usually bought without the pupils on. You make a wish and paint in a pupil. When your wish comes true, you can then paint on the other pupil. And so our daruma now sits atop Tofu. Pupil painted on by hubs.

At the end of the year, the daruma dolls are returned to the temples to be burned. Hope that when we return ours at the end of the year it already has two pupils on.

The nengajō aka Japanese new year card

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Marjorie

It’s already the middle of January (how time flies!) and I still have a number of posts in line that is related to the Japanese New Year festivities or more known here as Shōgatsu (正月). The Japanese culture is just so rich with detail and flair!

So, the nengajō (年賀状). At a time when a lot of us are busy darting to and fro looking for the perfect gifts and cards for Christmas, the Japanese are busy as well with the preparations in sending the nengajō or the Japanese post cards which will be sent on January 1 granting you didn’t miss the deadline. So one can just imagine how busy the Japan Post is at this time of the year. It was amazing to see Japan Post employees standing at the side of the road with bags in hand so that motorists can drop their nengajō on the bag without parking or stopping over at the post office. Talk about efficient.

Some people, probably those who are in the arts and crafts, make their own nengajō. For the likes of me though, thankfully, stationers sell preprinted cards. Even convenience stores sell nengajō!
At Family Mart.

People are selling preprinted cards everywhere in that one can even order for the cards in front of a train station.
At JR Sakuragicho station.

We had ours ordered online though and had it personalised by おたより本舗 (email them at ot@arts-net.co.jp).
Decided it best to have one of our wedding photos on our nengajō this year since the wedding was a great milestone for us for the year.

So yes, aside from well wishes for the new year, the nengajō is also a venue for people to share their milestones for the year by sharing photos. Hence it’s usual to see wedding photos, photos of their kids and babies, and photos of the sender from one of his/her travels.
Aren’t these kids just cute??!

People also take advantage of the nengajō to update their friends for any change of address or phone number.

If there has been a death or mourning in the family though, people send the mochuo (喪中), a card informing their friends to not send them the nengajō as respect to the grieving family/friend of the departed. We got three mochuo last December; the mochuo is usually sent weeks ahead of the nengajō.

Aside from the messages, photos and address/phone numbers, the nengajō is also sometimes decorated with famous cartoon characters alongside with the Chinese zodiac for the year. As this year is the year of the dragon, we got nengajō with cute dragon drawings.

For those which had the front of their nengajō full with photos, like ours, the stamp has some dragon drawing in it.

This was Atsushi’s stamp back in 2007 during the year of the pig.

And this was his front photo back then, a photo of him taken at Langtang Valley in the Himalaya.

The stamps aren’t just there for design though as they really serve as postal stamps. After writing down personal messages and written down the addresses of the recipients, one can immediately drop it at any postal box without paying anything since the stamp cost is already included in the price of the nengajō. It stands to reason though that only those accredited by the post office can sell nengajō.

Pretty interesting isn’t it? 🙂

a game of Ogura Hyakunin Isshu

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Marjorie

Over the holidays, I saw in tv once a group of women in very traditional kimonos, faces painted in traditional Japanese makeup (very white faces with only a red dot for lips), all intent in playing a card game, all serious as they whisk a card one at a time. It was pretty interesting. Hence I was really thankful when, for our first class for the year earlier, our Nihongo sensei introduced the very same card game that I saw on tv – Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.

The Hyakunin Isshu (百人一首) is a collection or anthology of tanka or poetry; hyaku for 100 and nin for persons thereby meaning to say that 100 poets contributed to the collection cum anthology, one poem per one person. It also refers to the card game uta-garuta (uta means song), a japanese traditional New Year game, which uses a deck composed of poems from one such anthology. Of all the Hyakunin Isshu, the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu is the most popular and notable and it was this deck of cards that our sensei brought to our lunch break class.

The deck of cards are divided into two sets – one bearing the poems with the kanji of course and the other with purely hiragana text containing the two last 14 sounds/syllables/characters from the tank/poem.
The deck with the poems.

The rule of the game is that the game master is to recite the poem in singsong, monotonous rhythm. Supposedly, at the first few sounds/syllables, the player should be able to identify the song, look for the card bearing the last 14 characters of the tanka and whisk it away from your opponent as fast as you can. Hubs once represented his class for this game and he had to memorise all 100 poems!

But, well, since this was our first time, we had to listen to our sensei’s singsong voice and wait for the first few characters of the last 14 and look for the corresponding character on the cards splayed in front of us. It was a really enjoyable way to practice our hiragana. What was even more interesting is that the hiragana was the old version, with very curvy い and え and where を is used as お.
I would have loved to whisk away the cards when I get to identify them, but I was hesitant to show off haha. I didn’t fare bad though.

Why play this only during new year!? This would be great as well on any gathering/small parties.

Thank you sensei, for being very patient and creative in teaching us 🙂

Coming of age day

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Marjorie

I’ve come to look forward to the Coming of Age day or what the Japanese call as Seijin no Hi (成人式) – that second Monday of January holiday wherein the young 20 year olds of Japan are celebrated and encouraged as they cross the threshold into adulthood. I look forward to it not because I can participate in the festivities but because it is such to sight to behold the streets of Japan teeming with young adults garbed in their best kimonos, kimonos so impressive in design you’d wonder how much it costs.

I was on my way to the office when I saw these young women whose pictures were being taken by their parents. I asked if they can indulge me to take their picture and they happily gave their consent.
Pretty aren’t they?

Look how elaborate their obis are.

Here’s one up close.

The men wear their kimono too but really it’s the women whom I look forward to see because of how elaborate their kimonos are. Makes one wish for a girl in the family. 🙂 🙂

On Chocolate Hill

A chocolatey journey, with Yui!

Category Archives: culture

on Daruma dolls and wishes

The nengajō aka Japanese new year card

a game of Ogura Hyakunin Isshu

Coming of age day