VOL.199 JANUARY 2025
[NEW YEAR'S ISSUE 2025] CELEBRATING A BRIGHT NEW YEAR IN JAPAN The Origins and Significance of Japan’s New Year’s Culture

Rice plants bear kernels of rice, a crop that has had special importance to the people of Japan

Shogatsu, the New Year’s celebration, is a particularly special time among the various annual events in Japan. For this issue, we interviewed Professor SHINTANI Takanori, a folklorist and expert on ancient Japanese culture, about the origins and underlying sentiments associated with the unique customs and features of the Japanese New Year.

Among the various annual events in Japan, the Shogatsu New Year’s celebrations have particular importance. Could you discuss the special significance this holiday has for the people of Japan?

Shogatsu literally means the first month of the new year: the starting point of the year just beginning. Greeting the new year does have special significance for the Japanese.

To begin with, it corresponds to Toshitori. This means that everyone turns one year older on New Year’s Day, regardless of their birthday. Up until 1873, when the modern Western calendar was adopted, the idea like, kazoedoshi system of counting people’s ages was traditionally used. This meant counting people’s ages by the number of toshidama they had received. The belief was that the Toshigami* deity would come with the New Year and grant each person another year to add to their age. These were referred to as toshidama, literally a “year spirit.” Also, babies were considered to have one life — in other words, one spirit — so, they were considered to be “one year old” at the time of birth. This meant that babies born in February and those born in November of the preceding year would both be considered two years old when the new year arrived. This idea has been almost completely forgotten in Japan today. Originally, though, people of all ages and genders would each receive a toshidama from Toshigami deity and add one year to their age in this way. That was a large part of the significance of New Year’s celebrations. This concept of toshidama is actually the origin of the custom of o-toshidama,** meaning a New Year’s gift, where children in Japan today receive money from parents and other family members on New Year’s Day.

At the same time, special value has also been placed on rice in Japan, where cultivation of the crop has been practiced since ancient times. Eating rice gave people energy and strength, which led to the conception that it contained spiritual power. While a belief in a spiritual power held in grains and cereal crops, including barley and rice, is widespread, found throughout the world, in Japan, the belief came to be particularly associated with rice and rice plants. This is also called belief in inadama — literally “rice plant spirits.”

Starting from a single grain in the spring, this crop that grants life force to people grows to hundreds or thousands times as many heads and grains of rice by autumn, when it is harvested. This vital strength and gratitude to the crop for the food it provides led to a belief in a spiritual power contained in rice. Eating this rice, harvested once a year, was also part of the reason for the belief in toshidama that the Toshigami deity would come and grant each person another year to add to their age.

This is why, while precious rice was ordinarily used sparingly, many areas of Japan did in fact have customs of eating steamed white rice, at least from New Year’s Eve through the first three days of the new year (four days from December 31 to January 3), no matter what it might take. This was true even in places with limited access to rice, including villages throughout Japan where assorted grains or barley mixed with rice were commonly eaten until the 1950s, as well as fishing villages and mountain villages where almost no rice was harvested.

Traditionally, steamed white rice was eaten at toshitori aging celebrations. It was around the 11th century during the mid-Heian period that this custom shifted to white mochi cakes of pounded rice. In such ways, a culture of rice cultivation can be seen at the foundation of Japanese culture, and it has had considerable influence on the identity of the Japanese people and the country’s collective social structure. The act of growing and eating rice together was extremely important within the community. Against this background, I think we can see that, unlike doctrine-based religions as found in Western countries, Japanese religious views are characterized by greater flexibility and practicality, with a focus on connections and relations with nature and people in local communities.

There is actually one more thing the Toshigami deity brings at New Year’s besides another year to add to people’s ages: good fortune for the new year. There was a belief that all of the various good things and bad things that might have happened during the old year would be cancelled out completely on Oomisoka (New Year’s Eve) for a fresh reset. People believed that, as they greeted the new year, if they could be granted good fortune from the deity, the whole year ahead would be a good one. In order to receive good luck and good fortune brought by Toshigami, people would work to clean up their bodies and minds, including susuharai*** and oosoji to cleanse all parts of houses and other places, starting from around the middle of December. To have Shogatsu preparations finished by around the 26th to 28th of the month was once the traditional practice in Japanese homes.

Japan has a culture of celebrating the New Year with a number of brilliant, showy items associated with good luck. These include kadomatsu pine-and-bamboo decorations, kagami-mochi (stacked pairs of round mochi cakes with bitter oranges placed on top), and the traditional Shogatsu cuisine, o-sechi ryori. Could you say more about the origins and historical developments associated with each of these?

Looking closely into the history of Shogatsu events in Japan reveals the fascinating fact that their history involves the co-existence of traditional cultural practices that have been handed down and transitional elements that have undergone change. There has come to be a mixture of ancient customs passed down from long in the past and new practices that have resulted from change over time.

As I mentioned earlier, there was a belief that Toshigami visited people’s houses on New Year’s day. Accordingly, on the 13th day of the old year’s December, people would begin their preparations for the events, which is known as Shogatsu Kotohajime. After finishing preparations — cutting pinetree branches for the kadomatsu, known as matsu-mukae, hanging wreaths called shimekazari made with lengths of straw rope which represents a house that welcomes the Toshigami, mochi-tsuki: pounding the mochi cakes, and so on — families would stay at home together from Oomisoka, the final day of the year, through Gantan, New Year’s Day, quietly awaiting Toshigami’s visit.

Some regions even have customs of setting up altars called Toshigami-dana for the deity’s visit. These altars are made with lengths of split bamboo tied together with straw cords and hung from the ceiling to form shelves that might be considered places where Toshigami is enshrined (see photo). 

Kadomatsu is Shogatsu decoration of central importance, meant to welcome Toshigami. Pines have been long been considered to be associated with good luck: they are evergreen trees that seem to possess life force, and they also show surprising amounts of growth each year. The Kokin Wakashu (literally “Collection of Japanese Waka Poems of Ancient and Modern Times”),**** which is thought to have been compiled in 905, includes poems in which pine trees appear as expressions of favorable fortune in the Ga no Uta (“Poems of Congratulations”)***** part (or chapter). From this, we can assume that by around the year 900, pines had already been incorporated into Shogatsu events with significance relating to celebration and hopes for long life.

There was also a custom of eating toshitori-zen on Oomisoka (New Year’s Eve). This dish consisted of toshitori-zakana****** fish, which might be salmon, yellowtail, or sardines, on steamed white rice. Next, eating zoni soup with mochi cakes in it the following day, New Year’s Day, was how people celebrated adding a year to their age. The significance of this was that by eating the toshitori-zen with its steamed rice and the zoni with its pounded-rice mochi, one would undergo a sort of rebirth from the toshidama they had in the old year to their new self with its freshly granted toshidama.

Today, the most well-known New Year’s cuisine in Japan is certainly o-sechi ryori. O-sechi originally referred to dishes served as offerings to deities on sechi-nichi, seasonal festival dates. These were meals including steamed white rice served with toshi-zakana fish and O-suimono Japanese clear soups to celebrate adding a year to people’s ages, and were for people to consume as well. 

At the same time, separately from that, we could probably also say another origin of o-sechi ryori was the festive and decorative combinations of foods associated with good fortune prepared in celebrating the New Year. This was called horai in the Kamigata region of western Japan centered around Kyoto, which was the capital of Japan at the time, and kuitsumi in Edo, which is known today as Tokyo. Both were served in the centers of sanbo******* trays with pine, bamboo, and plum decorations and arrangements of foods including steamed white rice, daidai bitter oranges, dried chestnuts, dried persimmons, yuzuri-ha (leaves of the false daphne), konbu seaweed, and Ise-ebi spiny lobster. While the horai of Kamigata was purely decorative, the kuitsumi of Edo was meant for visiting New Year’s callers to take a bite of in celebration.

Then, in the early modern period, we see homemaker-oriented magazines in metropolitan areas begin to introduce an absolutely new arrangement, with appetizers on the first, simmered nimono dishes on the second, and vinegared sunomono dishes on the third layers of lacquered jubako. This is what led to the eventual spread of o-sechi ryori served in multi-layered jubako******** nationwide.

Such a range of New Year’s events are held in all parts of Japan. Are there any in particular that you might like to recommend to our readers?

Among the New Year’s events, the one that deserves special mention is “Hatsumode” the event, first visits of the new year to Shinto shrines, and sometimes Buddhist temples. Each year, many visitors certainly crowd into the Meiji Jingu Shrine and Narita-san Shinsho-ji Temple.

That said, the custom of making visits to shrines during the first to third days of the new year actually only dates to around the 1870s to 1890s, when the process of modernization began even in urban areas of Japan. Phenomena associated with the modernization of Japanese society, including national and governmental encouragement of attendance at Shinto shrines’ rituals and the new flourishing of railway operations, were influential, leading to the spread of attitudes where people hoped to make shrine visits and receive good fortune from deities before anyone else. 

However, the good fortune and additional year of one’s age granted by Toshigami, as I mentioned earlier, were traditionally given equally and evenly to all. I think that even if you make quiet visits avoiding the busy first three days of the new year, you can expect to receive plenty of benefits, including good fortune and blessings, in addition to charms against evil spirits.

Also, the Raihoshin rituals are something I would really hope for visitors to Japan from overseas to know about and experience. Observed throughout Japan, these annually performed rituals involve masked and costumed deities in truly outlandish forms making visits to people’s houses, scolding the lazy and granting happiness and good fortune. I think the Toshidon ritual of the Koshiki-shima Islands is particularly fascinating. Here, the Toshidon visits houses with children between the ages of three and eight, decorated with materials from palm trees and sago palm leaves, wearing terrifying masks featuring long noses. Praising children for good behavior in the past year and scolding them for bad, they finally give large mochi cakes called toshi-mochi before leaving. Appearing in unusual forms beyond human control, the Toshidon seems a powerful deity that brings new life and toshidama life force in the New Year.

In Japan, welcoming the New Year means that each of us is reborn as a new person. That is the essential meaning of Shogatsu in Japan. We hope to make 2025 a good year by inviting good fortune with pure hearts.

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* A deity visiting homes from New Year’s Eve to New Year’s Day, bringing the good fortune of the new year. The visit of Toshigami was thought to add another year to people’s ages.
** A custom in which cash is given by adults to children in small bags.
*** The custom of cleansing spaces such as rooms, household shrines and altars of dust and other impurities. This practice also has the significance of purifying homes to welcome deities.
**** First imperial collection of waka poems compiled by four editors including Ki no Tsurayuki in 905, commanded by Emperor Daigo. The collection contains around 1,100 waka poems in 20 volumes dedicated to the emperor.
***** A category of traditional waka poems. It also refers to a butate (part or chapter) of a classical waka poetry collection like The Kokin Wakashu that contains celebratory poems, and many of them are poems praying for long life.
****** Refers to fish eaten at turning points in years. Types and names of fish vary from region to region.
******* A type of altar used for offerings to deities and Buddhas. Also, tsuigasane trays used for serving meals at banquets and other occasions.
******** See Food and Dishware as Landscapes in the January 2021 issue of HIGHLIGHTING Japan

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By MOROHASHI Kumiko
Photo: SAKURABA Toshimi; Satsuma Sendai City; SHINTANI Takanori; FUJIN-NO-TOMO-SHA Co., Ltd.; Collection of Yonezawa City Uesugi Museum; PIXTA