“Hagoita” fair boosts joyful mood at Tokyo temple for New Year

Dec. 19, 2009

“Hagoita” fair boosts joyful mood at Tokyo temple for New Year

Japanese are busy preparing themselves for the New Year’s Day around this time of the year. Jobs for them to do for the year-end and New Year’s holiday season include writing postcards for New Year’s greetings to be delivered on the first day of January, making dishes ready for guests, cleaning the whole house and buying gifts for family members, friends and others. Japan’s economy remains in a fix, but an animated mood was dominant in areas around Sensoji Temple, a famous tourist spot in Tokyo, this week with the approach to its main gate lined by about 30 shops set up for an annual fair of decorated “hagoita” battledore or rackets for Japanese badminton.

Playing battledore and shuttlecock is a traditional New Year’s game for young girls and children. The play is said to have originated from court people in the 15th century. Some of the customs and games for the New Year’s holidays have become outdated, but some are still observed. Girls sometimes actually play hagoita badminton, but the fair at the Buddhist temple attracted people hoping to buy decorated hagoita as gifts for girl babies for their health or as New Year’s ornaments. An old shopkeeper was talking to an elderly customer at one hagoita stand. “May I help you, mom?” “I’d like to have a nice one for my newly born granddaughter.” “Must be your first grandchild ‘cause you look young.”

How many nights to sleep before the New Year’s Day?
When it comes, let’s play kite flying. Let’s play top spinning.
Come to us quickly, please, the New Year’s Day.
How many nights to sleep before the New Year’s Day?
When it comes, let’s play ball bouncing. Let’s play badminton.
Come to us quickly, please, the New Year’s Day.
(A personal translation)

This is a song included in a book of songs for kindergarten children published by the Education Ministry in 1901.
Decorated hagoita rackets usually feature images of heroines and heroes of popular traditional “kabuki” plays. The relief-like images are created by pasting many colored pieces of silk cloth stuffed with cotton on rectangle plates of wood. At the three-day fair, the shops were carrying various kinds of hagoita rackets, from miniatures to big ones. Prices ranged from less than 1,000 yen to over 100,000 yen. When deals were done, shop clerks clapped their hands for a celebration while wishing the customers a happy new year. Customers and shopkeepers alike were seen hoping that the colorful items would not only brighten their life but also help dispel evils for Japan in the New Year.