New Year's custom in Japan
I first posted this article as a comment on Guoping’s Blog but I want everyone to read it so, I’m re-posting it here.
Let me introduce a Japanese New Year’s custom to you. In Japan, there are quite a few of these customs; for example, osechi ryouri, kagamimochi, hatsumode, motituki, and shimenawa. Do you know these customs?
Especially, I examined osechi ryori. The tradition started in the Heian period. Osechi are easily recognizable by their special boxes called jubako, which resemble bento boxes. Like bento boxes, jubako are often kept stacked before and after use.
Osechi have black soybeans, herring roe, tazukuri dried sardines cooked in soy sauce, kombu, sweet roasted chestnuts, red sea-bream, Japanese bitter orange, taro, kamaboko, kurikinton, mashed sweet potato with chestnut, rolled eggs and so on.
The dishes that make up osechi each have a special meaning celebrating the New Year. Let me give some examples. Black soybeans mean that everyone will keep their good health in the new year. Herring roe means “child”: it symbolizes a wish to be gifted with children in the new year. Taro have almost the same meaning because taro have many children. Kombu is associated with the Japanese word yorokobu, meaning “joy,” and red sea-bream, tai is associated with the Japanese word medetai, meaning an auspicious event. kamaboko, which is slices of red and white fish cakes alternated in rows or arranged in a pattern. The color and shape are reminiscent of the rising sun, and have a celebratory, festive meaning.
I don’t know how each food got to have each meaning, but I think it is interesting.
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Do you like zouni?
In Japan we have the custom of eating zouni on New Year’s day. Zouni is rice cakes boiled with vegetables. As I like it very much, I have done a little research about it.
It is said that the beginning of zouni was in the Azuchi-Momoyama period (approximately 1568 to 1600). People ate zouni on New Year’s Day and prayed to god for a perfect state of health.
Generally, in the north and east of Japan, square rice cakes are eaten and in the west of Japan round rice cakes are eaten.
The ways of making zouni differ from place to place. For example, in Iwate prefecture, people eat zouni with walnut sauce. In Fukui prefecture people put a turnip into zouni; the turnip is a good-luck token in Japan. In Hokkaido people eat very splendid zouni. People put crab, salmon, and salmon roe into it. In Tottori prefecture, very sweet zouni is eaten. People put round rice cakes into adzuki (red soy bean) soup. It is called zenzai in other prefectures. In Okinawa prefecture people don’t have the habit of eating zouni.
Though I said that the ways of making zouni differ from place to place, it is not decided strictly. Actually, people often get married to a person who is from another prefecture, so the ways of making zouni are united there. And new original zouni are born.
By the way, I put green laver in zouni. What kinds of special zouni do you know? I want to know about your home’s original zouni. And I want to eat every prefecture’s special zouni.
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Powdered green tea
I’d like to talk about this summer vacation. It was longer than ever and I had no homework, so I could enjoy the summer vacation more.
At the beginning of August, I spent time working part-time as a tutor. I teach English to high school students. Now I have eight students from Thursday to Saturday. Some are friendly and others are not, but all of them listen carefully to me, so I think I should be getting better at teaching. I want to carry on doing this job for a long time.
In the middle of August, I went to Kobe for the first time in my life. It is a very beautiful city. For example, it has many high buildings and they have mirror-like walls reflecting the blue sky. Kobe was so bright that I couldn’t believe it had been destroyed in a great earthquake. I ate the Ishidatami of powdered green tea―the cake and green tea ice are in harmony!―at Sweets Harbor. That day a typhoon was coming, but the weather was fine, so I enjoyed sightseeing very much.
The rest of the vacation I enjoyed having fun with my junior high school and high school friends, working part-time, doing housework (especially cooking), and studying English a little.
I went to Kyoto for sightseeing in the last week of September. I saw Ginkakuji temple, Kiyomizu temple, Yasaka shrine and so on. The large Japanese garden of Ginkakuji was so leafy and mossy, and there was a big pudding made of sand called “Kogetsudai”.
I ate Tsujiri’s powdered green tea parfait in Gion. It was very delicious! When I went to Kyoto station to return home, there was a sweeping staircase and I found that it has 254 steps by climbing from top to bottom. Kyoto is an old traditional city and has another goodness than Kobe. I love both of them!
Thus, thanks to the joyful travel and nice friends I really enjoyed my vacation. I’ll never forget these summer days.
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