Tanabata
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Tanabata | |
---|---|
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 |
Tanabata (
History
The festival was introduced to Japan by the
The festival gained widespread popularity amongst the general public by the early
The name Tanabata is remotely related to the
Story
Like 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 (織姫, "Weaving Princess"), daughter of the Tentei (天帝, "Sky King", or the universe itself), wove beautiful clothes by the bank of the Amanogawa (天の川, "Milky Way", literally "heavenly river"). Her father loved the cloth that she wove and so she worked very hard every day to weave it. However, Orihime was sad that because of her hard work she could never meet and fall in love with anyone. Concerned about his daughter, Tentei arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi (彦星, "Cowman"/"Cowherd Star", or literally "Boy Star")(also referred to as Kengyū (牽牛)) who lived and worked on the other side of the Amanogawa. When the two met, they fell instantly in love with each other and married shortly thereafter. However, once married, Orihime would no longer weave cloth for Tentei and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to stray all over Heaven. In anger, Tentei separated the two lovers across the Amanogawa and forbade them to meet. Orihime became despondent at the loss of her husband and asked her father to let them meet again. Tentei was moved by his daughter's tears and allowed the two to meet on the 7th day of the 7th month if she worked hard and finished her weaving. The first time they tried to meet, however, they found that they could not cross the river because there was no bridge. Orihime cried so much that a flock of magpies came and promised to make a bridge with their wings so that she could cross the river. It is said that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies cannot come because of the rise of the river and the two lovers must wait until another year to meet. The rain of this day is called "The tears of Orihime and Hikoboshi".
Names
Characters
Orihime and Hikoboshi are called various names in the different versions of the story.[5]: 10
Orihime 織姫 | Hikoboshi 彦星 | |
---|---|---|
Birth name | 棚機津女 or 棚機つ女 - Tanabata-tsume | 牽牛 – Kengyū ("Cowherd") |
Title | 女七夕 – Me-Tanabata ("Female Tanabata") | 男七夕 – O-Tanabata ("Male Tanabata") |
Various names and epithets | 秋去姫 – Akisari-hime ("Going to Autumn Princess")
朝顔姫 – Asagao-hime ("Morning Glory Princess") 百子姫 – Momoko-hime ("Peach-Child Princess") 梶葉姫 – Kajinoba-hime ("Paper Mulberry Princess"), the washi paper made from the paper mulberry 琴寄姫 – Kotoyori-hime 灯姫 – Tomoshibi-hime ("Luminous Bright Light Princess") 妻星 – Tsuma-boshi ("Wife Constellation/ Star") 機織姫 – Hata'ori-hime ("Weaving Princess") 星の妻 – Hoshi-no-tsuma ("Constellation/ Star Wife", i.e.: wife of Kengyū) |
飼星 – Kai-boshi ("Herder/ Shepherdman Star") 犬飼星 – Inukai-boshi ("Dog Herder/ Shepherdman Star") 牛引星 – Ushihiki-boshi ("Cow-tender Star") |
Constellation title | 女星 – Me-boshi ("Female Constellation/ Star") | 男星 – O-boshi ("Male Constellation/ Star") |
Festival
The Festival of Tanabata is also known by various names:
Name | Transliteration | Meaning |
---|---|---|
秋七日 | Aki-nanoka | "Seventh day of Autumn" |
芋の葉の露 | Imo-no-ha-no-tsuyu | "Dew from the leaves of the Yams or Potatoes" |
七夕雨 | Tanabata-ame | "Rain of the Tanabata" |
七夕送り | Tanabata-okuri | "Embarking Tanabata" |
七夕紙 | Tanabata-gami | "Paper of the Tanabata", i.e. paper which carries the wishes |
七夕色紙 | Tanabata-shikishi | "Colored paper of the Tanabata" |
七夕竹 | Tanabata-take | "Bamboo of the Tanabata", i.e. the bamboo that carries the decorations or wishes |
七夕竹売 | Tanabata-take'uri | "Bamboo of the Tanabata which offers and carries" |
七夕棚 | Tanabata-dana | "Rack of the Tanabata" |
短冊竹 | Tanzaku-dake | "Bamboo of the Tanzaku" |
星今宵 | Hoshi-koyoi | "Evening of the Star" |
星宮祭 | Hoshi-no-miya-matsuri | "Festival/ Celebration of the Star Palace" – i.e. the twin star Altair and Vega |
星祭 | Hoshi-matsuri | "Star Festival" |
Other stories
Human male and Heavenly female
Japanese 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
Professors Masako Satō and
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
In 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 |
笹の葉 さらさら |
Sasa no ha sara-sara |
The bamboo leaves rustle, |
Date
The 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
Large-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
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
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]
-
In a shopping mall at Morioka, 2003
-
Asagaya, Suginami Ward in Tokyo, 2009
-
Hiratsuka, 2011
-
Sendai, 2005
Sendai festival
The
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
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Net (投網, Toami): Paper decoration for good fishing
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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 (薬玉; Kusudama) often decorated above streamers in present-day Tanabata decorations was originally conceived in 1946 by the owner of a shop in downtown Sendai. The ball was originally modeled after the dahlia flower. In recent years, box-shaped ornaments have become popular alternatives to the ornamental ball.
G8 summit in 2008
In 2008, the
The
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
- Sekidera Komachi, a famous Noh play set during the Tanabata festival
- Mobara Tanabata Festival
- Qixi Festival
- Chilseok
- Japanese festivals
Explanatory footnotes
References
- ISBN 978-1-4196-4893-9.
- doi:10.2307/1177332.
- 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.
- ISBN 4-7902-4005-3.
- 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)
- 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.
- .
- .
- ^ 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.
- .
- ^ 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
- 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.