Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/69

 ror-dumplings" (kagami-mochi), which have hitherto stood on the "elysian table," and those that have been offered at the family altar (kami-dana), at the well, and at the hearth, are cut up, fried with soy, and eaten by every member of the household, though, in truth, the dish derives its relish rather from the season than from its own savour.

At dusk on the 6th and at dawn on the 7th a curious combination of cooking and incantation takes place. It is called "the chopping of the seven herbs." From the Nara epoch—that is to say, from the eighth century—it became customary that the Emperor, attended by the Court nobles, should make an expedition to the hills on the "first day of the rat," in the first month, for the purpose of rooting up pine saplings and carrying them back to plant in the Palace park. His Majesty thus brought home longevity, of which the pine had always been symbolical. At the same time the leaves of spring plants were plucked, so that green youth might accompany length of years. It would be futile to attempt any description of the stately graces and elaborate ceremonial with which the Japanese can invest these acts in themselves so primitive. The transplanting of a baby pine, the gathering of a few tender leaves, are purposes so essentially paltry that to prelude them by sumptuous preparations and accompany them by solemn rites seems a grotesque solecism.