Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/163

Rh

The most striking feature of New-Year's Day in Japan is the decoration placed with more or less completeness before every portal. Every object of which the decoration is composed has, as might be supposed, a symbolic meaning. Suppose a spectator to face the green arch—on his right will be a Me Matsu (Pinus densiflora) with its reddish stem, and on his left will be the black trunk of the Omatsu (Pinus Thunbergii, or Massoniana). Immediately behind the pines rises on each side the graceful stem of the bamboo, of which any kind that is convenient is selected. Its erect growth and succession of knots, marking its increase during succeeding seasons, render it symbol of hale life and a fulness of years. The distance of usually about six feet between the bamboos is spanned by a grass rope (Nawa). Although convenience obliges this rope to be sufficiently high to allow of passage beneath, it should, to accord with its symbolic meaning, debar all bad and unclean things from crossing the threshold. In the centre of arch thus formed of pines, bamboos, and rope is a group of several objects. The most conspicuous is the scarlet yebe, or lobster, whose crooked body betokens the back of the aged bent with the weight of years. The lobster is embowered amongst Yusuri branches. In this Yusuri (Melia Japonica), when the young leaves have budded, the old leaves yet remain unshed. So may the parents continue to flourish while children and grandchildren spring forth. In the centre also are the graceful fronds, the Urajiro (Polypodium dichotomum). This fern symbolises conjugal life, because the fronds spring in pairs from the stem. These uniform graceful leaves might suggest dangerous ideas of the equality of the sexes, but the simile has not in Japan been pushed to so desperate a length. Between the paired leaves nestles, as offspring, the little leaf-bud. Here and there are quaintly-cut scraps of white paper, the gohei, or offering to the gods; the form of the paper is said by some to be a conventionalised representation of a human form—that of the offerer—devoting himself thus in effigy to the deities. Almost as conspicuous as the lobster is the orange-coloured daidai, a fruit of the Citrus Bigaradia. The juice of the daidai is much prized as a remedy against vomiting. This is