Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/58

, or "teeth-strengthener," a word having the same sound as "debility restorer." Thus this assemblage of edibles constitutes a feast of fortune. Originally the elysian stand was set before guests coming to pay New Year's calls, and the comestibles placed upon it were partaken of. But it subsequently became a mere article of furniture, a part of the decorations of the season. These decorations, spoken of collectively as kado-matsu, or "pine of the doorway," consist primarily of pine and bamboo saplings planted at either side of the vestibule and having a rope of rice-straw (shime-nawa) suspended across the boughs or festooned from them. History says that the fashion of the pines dates from the beginning of the tenth century; that the bamboo was added five hundred years later, and that the straw rope preceded both by an unknown interval. No religious significance attaches to the pine or the bamboo; they simply typify ever-green longevity. But the rope recalls the central event in the Japanese cosmogony, when, the Sun Goddess having been enticed from her cavern, a barrier was stretched across the entrance to prevent her from retreating thither again. Wherever the rope hangs the sweet fresh breath of spring is supposed to penetrate. This, then, is the most prominent element of the decorations: it is suspended not only at the entrance of the house, but also beside the well, before the bathroom, across the sacred shelf, and in the inner court. At the