Savoring a traditional new year, Japanese style

Savoring a traditional new year, Japanese style

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

There was nary a lack of enthusiasm in the air as more than
100 people shouted "Yoisho!" (with spirit) , "yoisho"
, "yoisho" to a man as he pounded rice with a
wooden mallet.

The man was making mochi, a rice cake eaten amid the
celebrations of New Year's Eve in Japan. Tradition dictates that
spectators cheering him on must be family and friends.

But this isn't Japan, and it wasn't New Year's Eve.

The focus of attention in this instance was actually the Japan
Foundation's director in Jakarta, Kazumasa Nishida, while the
spectators egging him on were employees and visitors to the
foundation, mostly students.

During the event, traditional new year's games were introduced
with a hall opulently bedecked with colorful samurai-decorated
kites to compensate for the lack of the tako-age, or kite-flying
activity on the second floor of the Summitmas Tower on Jl. Jend.
Sudirman, South Jakarta.

The locale, however, did little to take away from the
merriment. On one side, for instance, people could be seen
playing karuta, a game with a set of cards that contain pictures
of everyday scenes and a letter from the hiragana alphabet. The
players have to snap up the cards that match the narrator's
depiction of the scene as quick as they can.

On another side, people played koma, or spinning top, and
girls playing the hanetsuki, a game not unlike badminton, only
with wooden racquets and wood-tipped shuttlecocks. All the
features of a day of play in a typical Japanese neighborhood.

The new year's celebrations, of course, are always very
special to the Japanese. It is considered a time of renewal and
rebirth.

It contrasts with the ending days of the year, which is almost
always hectic with people finishing off the year's business,
finalizing debts, and cleaning their homes."We like to start the
new year with a clean slate," the assistant director for the
foundation's culture unit, Sato Maho, mused.

Usually held over the course of three days, the new year
festivities in Japan are also a time of solemn prayers and
contemplation. Many special and auspicious symbols are exhibited
at this time of the year, such as the kadomatsu, a pine
decoration usually set up on both sides of the entrance of a home
to welcome guests with wishes of good luck along with a
shimenawa, a straw rope with strips of paper hung above the
entrance to keep evil spirits at bay.

Special dishes are also prepared for the occasion, many of
which are made with strong seasonings to keep them fresh through
the duration of the holidays. Food traditionally eaten at the new
year is called o-sechi ryoori, generally comprising of stewed
vegetables, sweet boiled black beans, salted herring roe, sea
bream and shrimp -- all of which are attractively arranged in
square-lacquered boxes called jubako.

Almost all of o-sechi are chosen for the association of their
names with certain meanings, virtues or fortunes to be sought.
For example, prawns are for long life, sweet black beans for
health, herring roe for fertility, small sardines for a good
harvest and sweet chestnuts and mashed sweet potatoes for
happiness.

Another tradition is to eat mochi during the new year's
celebrations. The mochi-making ceremony itself, called
mochitsuki, is an essential part of the festivities.

"In the past, each family would make its own mochi, but
nowadays the traditional mochitsuki is usually done by a whole
neighborhood," the Japan Foundation's assistant director,
Horikawa Koichi, said; the ceremony, he added, was created mainly
to foster a bond of togetherness among neighbors as they take
turns pounding the sticky mochi rice.

Some mochi would be made into the kagami mochi, or "mirror
mochi," made up of two round mochi -- one smaller than the other,
stacked atop each other, with a mandarin orange on top.

Horikawa said kagami mochi stands for yin-yang, the symbol of
harmony, and the hope that the new year will bring good fortune.
The kagami mochi is usually placed in the main room of the house,
and is believed to contain the new year god Toshigami-sama.

On Jan. 11, when the decorations are taken down, the kagami
mochi is cut into pieces and eaten.

Usually, mochi is eaten with a sweet bean sauce called
oshiruko, or with ozoni soup.

The types and taste of ozoni differ with each region. In
Tokyo, ozoni is made of chicken-like soup, while in Osaka it is
based on miso soup. Soba (buckwheat noodles) is also customarily
eaten on New Year's Eve; the dish is called toshikoshi soba, or
year-crossing soba. There are various theories about the origin
of this custom, but, in essence, it is associated with prayers
for a happy and prosperous new year.

And as midnight draws to a close, another prominent tradition
can be heard in the ringing of bells echoing through the air as
temples mark the 108 tolls of the bell to signify the passing of
the old year and celebrate the new one that is about to begin.

With each tolling of the bell, legend has it, each one of the
108 evil passions from which humans suffer is cast away.