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Tanabata (Japanese: たなばた or
Tanabata | |
---|---|
![]() Celebration in Tokyo, 2010 | |
Significance | Celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi |
Begins | 7 July |
Date | July 7 |
2023 date | 22 August |
2024 date | 10 August |
2025 date | 29 August |
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/TanabataTokyo.jpg/220px-TanabataTokyo.jpg)
History
editThe festival was introduced to Japan by the Empress Kōken in 755.[4] It originated from "The Festival to Plead for Skills" (
The festival gained widespread popularity amongst the general public by the early Edo period,[5]: 19 when it became mixed with various Obon or Bon traditions (because Bon was held on 15th of the seventh month then), and developed into the modern Tanabata festival. Popular customs relating to the festival varied by region of the country,[5]: 20 but generally, girls wished for better sewing and craftsmanship, and boys wished for better handwriting by writing wishes on strips of paper. At this time, the custom was to use dew left on taro leaves to create the ink used to write wishes. Incidentally, Bon is now held on 15 August on the solar calendar, close to its original date on the lunar calendar, making Tanabata and Bon separate events.
The name Tanabata is remotely related to the Japanese reading of the Chinese characters
Story
editLike Qixi and Chilseok, Tanabata was inspired by the famous Chinese folklore story, "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl". Some versions were included in the Man'yōshū.[5]: 25
The most popular version is as follows:[5]: 1 [6][7][8]
Orihime (
Names
editCharacters
editOrihime and Hikoboshi are called various names in the different versions of the story.[5]: 10
Orihime |
Hikoboshi | |
---|---|---|
Birth name | ||
Title | ||
Various names and epithets | 飼星 – Kai-boshi ("Herder/ Shepherdman Star") | |
Constellation title |
Festival
editThe Festival of Tanabata is also known by various names:
Name | Transliteration | Meaning |
---|---|---|
Aki-nanoka | "Seventh day of Autumn" | |
Imo-no-ha-no-tsuyu | "Dew from the leaves of the Yams or Potatoes" | |
Tanabata-ame | "Rain of the Tanabata" | |
Tanabata-okuri | "Embarking Tanabata" | |
Tanabata-gami | "Paper of the Tanabata", i.e. paper which carries the wishes | |
Tanabata-shikishi | "Colored paper of the Tanabata" | |
Tanabata-take | "Bamboo of the Tanabata", i.e. the bamboo that carries the decorations or wishes | |
Tanabata-take'uri | "Bamboo of the Tanabata which offers and carries" | |
Tanabata-dana | "Rack of the Tanabata" | |
Tanzaku-dake | "Bamboo of the Tanzaku" | |
Hoshi-koyoi | "Evening of the Star" | |
Hoshi-no-miya-matsuri | "Festival/ Celebration of the Star Palace" – i.e. the twin star Altair and Vega | |
Hoshi-matsuri | "Star Festival" |
Other stories
editHuman male and Heavenly female
editJapanese scholars pointed out that some tales of the Tanabata cross over with the character of the Celestial Maiden (otherwise known in Japan as Tennin Nyoobo or Hagoromo).[9][10]
Comparative scholarship on the Japanese variants points that at the beginning of the story, the human male goes near a lake for a variety of reasons (a prayer to the gods for a wife; a vision sent in a dream; a grateful animal points him the way). Over the course of the story, the human partner reaches the celestial realm where his wife and her family live. Once there, he is forced to perform tasks before they reunite. At the end of the narrative, the husband breaks a taboo (he should not eat a certain melon/gourd, but he does and is washed away) and he and his celestial wife are separated, only to reunite again during the night of 7 July.[11]
James Danandjaja relates the Japanese tale of Amafuri Otome ("The Woman who came from the Sky"), as a similar tale of the unmarried mortal man, named Mikeran, who withholds the kimono from a bathing lady so she cannot fly home to the sky. Years after they marry, she finds her kimono and flies home with their children. Mikeran fashions a thousand straw sandals to reach the sky world and find his wife. When he meets his parents-in-law, the father-in-law forces him to perform some tasks, and tricks the human with cutting a thousand watermelons in one day. The human's sky wife knows it is a trap, but he does it anyway and is washed away by a flood created from the watermelons. Thus, they can only meet on the night of the Tanabata festival.[12]
Human female and Heavenly male
editProfessors Masako Satō and Noriko T. Reider provided a narrative analysis of an ancient tale involving a human female and her future consort, Prince Ame-waka-hiko. In this tale of the Otogi-zōshi genre, the Prince takes the form of a serpent and marries a human woman. He later reveals he is a heavenly deity named Dragon Prince. After some time, he disappears and his human bride must seek him out (akin to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche), even reaching the heavenly realm, where his father, an oni, lives. At the end of this tale, the lovers are forcibly separated by the oni father and can only reunite during the Tanabata.[13][14][15]
Noriko T. Reider draws attention to a second story of this combination: the "Qian Luwei Tale". In this version, the human wife's father is identified as Qian Luwei, and the male deity is Hikoboshi, the son of "Bontennō", Brahma.[16]
Customs
editIn present-day Japan, people generally celebrate this day by writing wishes, sometimes in the form of poetry, on tanzaku (
Simple[19] | Poetic[19] | Transliteration | Translation |
---|---|---|---|
ささのは さらさら |
|
Sasa no ha sara-sara |
The bamboo leaves rustle, |
Date
editThe original Tanabata date was based on the Japanese lunisolar calendar, which is about a month behind the Gregorian calendar. As a result, some festivals are held on 7 July, some are held on a few days around 7 August (according to the "One-Month Delay" way), while the others are still held on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the traditional Japanese lunisolar calendar, which is usually in August in the Gregorian Calendar.
The Gregorian dates of "the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the Japanese lunisolar calendar" for the coming years are:
- 2018: August 17
- 2019: August 7
- 2020: August 25
- 2021: August 14
- 2022: August 4
- 2023: August 22[20]
- 2024: August 10
- 2025: August 29
- 2026: August 19
Festivals
editLarge-scale Tanabata festivals are held in many places in Japan, mainly along shopping malls and streets, which are decorated with large, colorful streamers. The most famous Tanabata festival is held in Sendai from 6 to 8 August. In the Kantō area, two of the largest Tanabata festivals are held in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa (around 7 July) and in Asagaya, Tokyo immediately prior to the start of the Obon holiday in mid August. A Tanabata festival is also held in São Paulo, Brazil around the first weekend of July and Los Angeles, California in the beginning of August.
Although Tanabata festivals vary by region, most festivals involve Tanabata decoration competitions. Other events may include parades and Miss Tanabata contests. Like other Japanese matsuri, many outdoor stalls sell food, provide carnival games, etc., and add to the festive atmosphere.
Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea often celebrates the Tanabata Festival featuring a greeting parade with Minnie Mouse as Orihime and Mickey Mouse as Hikoboshi.[21]
Sendai festival
editThe Sendai Tanabata Festival is the most famous in Japan. Tanabata has been celebrated in the region since the time of Date Masamune (1567–1636) who was the first warlord in the Sendai area.[22] The festival began shortly after the city was founded in the early Edo Period. The Tanabata festival gradually developed and became larger over the years. Although the festival's popularity started to dwindle after the Meiji Restoration, and almost disappeared during the economic depression that occurred after World War I, volunteers in Sendai revived the festival in 1928 and established the tradition of holding the festival from 6 to 8 August.
During World War II it was impossible to hold the festival, and almost no decorations were seen in the city from 1943 to 1945, but after the war, the first major Tanabata festival in Sendai was held in 1946, and featured 52 decorations. In 1947, the Showa Emperor Hirohito visited Sendai and was greeted by 5,000 Tanabata decorations. The festival subsequently developed into one of the three major summer festivals in the Tōhoku region and has become a major tourist attraction. The festival now includes a fireworks show that is held on 5 August.
At the Sendai Tanabata Festival, people traditionally use seven different kinds of decorations, which each represent different meanings. The seven decorations and their symbolic meanings are:[23]
-
Paper strips (
短冊 , Tanzaku): Handwritten wishes for a good future to the earth and a thanks note -
Paper kimono (
紙 衣 , Kamigoromo): Paper decoration -
Paper crane (
折 り鶴 , Orizuru): Origami decoration for long life -
Purse (
巾着 , Kinchaku): Decoration for good business -
Net (
投網 , Toami): Paper decoration for good fishing -
Trash bag (くずかご, Kuzukago): Paper decoration for cleanliness
-
Streamers (
吹 き流 し, Fukinagashi): Paper tubular streamer for improved weaving skills
The ornamental ball (
G8 summit in 2008
editIn 2008, the 34th G8 summit in Tōyako, Hokkaidō coincided with Tanabata.[24] As host, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda invited the G8 leaders to participate in the spirit of the festival. They were each asked to write a wish on a piece of paper called tanzaku, to hang the tanzaku on a bamboo tree, and then to take the necessary actions to change the world for the better.[25] As a symbolic gesture, the actual writing and the act of hanging up that note is at least a first step.[26]
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs made colored strips of paper and a bamboo tree for G8 wishes available in Roppongi during the summit.[27] Protesting organizations in Sapporo during the G8 summit also tried to use the spirit of Tanabata to focus attention on a somewhat different set of wishes. Non-governmental organizations including Oxfam and CARE International set up an online wish petition campaign to coincide with the G8 Summit and Tanabata.[28] Outside Japan, Fukuda's timely gesture had unanticipated consequences. For example, the Indian nationally circulated newspaper, The Hindu, picked up on this festival theme by printing an editorial featuring unconventional Tanabata wishes.[29]
Fukuda also invited his fellow citizens to try turning off the lights in their house and stepping outside to enjoy with their family the sight of the Milky Way in the night sky.[30] On 7 July, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment anticipated that over 70,000 facilities and households across Japan would switch off their lights from 20:00 to 22:00 as a symbolic step and as a wish for the future.[31]
See also
edit- Sekidera Komachi, a famous Noh play set during the Tanabata festival
- Mobara Tanabata Festival
- Qixi Festival
- Chilseok
- Japanese festivals
Explanatory footnotes
editReferences
edit- ^ Brown, Ju; Brown, John (2006). China, Japan, Korea: Culture and customs. North Charleston: BookSurge. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-4196-4893-9.
- ^ Eder, Matthias. "Review of Reviews". In: Folklore Studies 20 (1961): 301. Accessed June 23, 2021. doi:10.2307/1177332.
- ^ Katō, Eileen, and Kanze Motokiyo Zeami. "Kinuta". In: Monumenta Nipponica 32, no. 3 (1977): 341 (footnote nr. 27). Accessed June 24, 2021. doi:10.2307/2384372.
- ^ Sargent, Denny. Shinto and Its Festivals.
- ^ a b c d e f Hearn, Lafcadio (1905). The Romance of the Milky Way, and other Studies & Stories. Houghton Mifflin and Company.
- ^ James, Grace (1910). Green Willow and other Japanese Fairy Tales. Macmillan & Co. p. 65.
- ^ Kaneko, Sōshū (1984). きょうのおはなし なつ [Today's story: Summer] (in Japanese). Suzuki Publishing. p. 24. ISBN 4-7902-4005-3.
- ^ Rupp, Katherine (2003). Gift-giving in Japan: cash, connections, cosmologies. Stanford University Press. p. 140. ISBN 0-8047-4704-0.
- ^ Takagi Masafumi. "[シリーズ/
比較 民話 ](二 )天人 女房 /白鳥 処女 " [Series: Comparative Studies of the Folktale (2) Tennin Nyoobo/The Swan Maiden]. In: The Seijo Bungei: the Seijo University arts and literature quarterly 223 (2013-06). pp. 35–55. (In Japanese) - ^ Yanagita, Kunio; Translated by Fanny Hagin Meyer (1986). Yanagita Kunio Guide to the Japanese Folk Tale. Indiana University Press. pp. 25–27. ISBN 0-253-36812-X.
- ^ 노영근. "설화의 유형 분류와 비교 연구
試論 -<선녀와 나무꾼> 유형을 중심으로-" [A Trial Research for Classification and Comparative Study of Folktales -Focused on Swan-Maiden Type-]. In: 온지논총 no.24(2010): 83–85. UCI: G704-001782.2010..24.010 - ^ Danandjaja, James. "A Comparative Study of Japanese and Indonesian Folklores". In: Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 33, No.3, December 1995. pp. 210–211.
- ^ Satō, Masako. "Transforming an Ancient Myth into a Popular Medieval Tale". In: Japan on the Silk Road. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2017. pp. 339–345. doi:10.1163/9789004274310_018.
- ^ Reider, Noriko T. "A Demon in the Sky: The Tale of Amewakahiko, a Japanese Medieval Story". In: Marvels & Tales 29, no. 2 (2015): 265–82. Accessed June 28, 2021. doi:10.13110/marvelstales.29.2.0265.
- ^ Reider, Noriko T. "Tale of Amewakahiko (Amewakahiko Sōshi): A Demon in the Sky, a Maiden in Search of Her Husband". In: Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan. Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 2016. Accessed June 28, 2021. pp. 135–155. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g04zg4.9.
- ^ Reider, Noriko T. "A Demon in the Sky: The Tale of Amewakahiko, a Japanese Medieval Story". In: Marvels & Tales 29, no. 2 (2015): 272–274. Accessed June 28, 2021. doi:10.13110/marvelstales.29.2.0265.
- ^ Mishima, Shizuko. "Japanese Tanabata Festival". About.com. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
- ^ "MIT Japanese "culture-notes" – Song-Tanabata, July". Japanese Language and Culture Network. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 5 March 2002. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
- ^ a b Tanabata-sama
- ^ Qixi Festival, 2022. Travel China Guide, https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/holidays/qixi.htm. Retrieved on July 7, 2022
- ^ "Celebrate Disney Tanabata Days at Tokyo Disney Resort". Disney Parks Blog. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
- ^ "Sendai Tanabata Matsuri". Japan National Tourism Organization. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
- ^ "Sendai's Tanabata Matsuri: Four Centuries of Vivid Colors". Nippon Communications Foundation. 9 June 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
- ^ Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA): Schedule Archived 19 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine; Reuters (India): "Factbox – Schedule for G8 Summit and Surrounding Events News." 3 July 2008.
- ^ 2008 Japan G8 Summit NGO Forum. " About Tanzaku Action – One Million Wishes," Archived 20 July 2008 at archive.today July 2008.
- ^ Saito, Mari and Sophie Hardach. "G8 leaders to wish upon a bamboo tree at summit," Reuters. 2 July 2008.
- ^ Japan, MOFA: "Setting up of the Public Relations Booth for the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit," 16 June 2008.
- ^ Oxfam: "Tanabata: Your wishes to the Summit!" July 2008.
- ^ Cooper, Andrew F. and Ramesh Takur. "Wishing on a star for the G8 summit," The Hindu (Chennai). 7 July 2008.
- ^ Japan, Prime Minister of Japan: "Before Tanabata, the Star Festival," Fukuda Cabinet E-mail Magazine No. 38 (3 July 2008).
- ^ "Lights to be turned off at 72,000 facilities on Tanabata night," Hokkaido Shimbun (Sapporo). 4 July 2008.
Further reading
edit- Como, Michael. Weaving and Binding: Immigrants Gods and Female Immortals in Ancient Japan. University of Hawai'i Press, 2009. Accessed June 30, 2021. JSTOR j.ctt6wqcr3.