Nov. 10, 2010
Japanese parents busy dressing up children for “Seven-five-three” festival
November is one of the busiest periods of the year for Japanese parents, especially those with three- and seven-year-old daughters and five-year-old sons. Shinto shrines across Japan are filled with kimono-clad small children, accompanied by their parents and sometimes, by their grandparents as well, on weekends around this time of the year. They are busy taking care of their beloved ones all the time when they visit shrines all together for the “shichi-go-san” (seven-five-three) festival and offer thanks for the children’s good health and pray for the God’s help for their future.
Samukawa Shrine, a time-honored Shinto shrine in Kanagawa Prefecture, attracted hundreds of families for the festival on a clear day last weekend. The garden in front of the shrine’s main building became a picture-shooting theater for fathers, mothers and their children.
The original style of the shichi-go-san festival dates back to the Heian period from the late eighth century to the 12th century. Until around the 19th century, Japan’s infant mortality rate was very high. Children were recognized as true humans only when they grew up to three, five or seven years old. “Before seven, among the Gods.” This is a saying in the ancient times that indicates people believed that babies and infants live in a place between the other world and this world and they can be returned anytime to the God’s side. This led to a custom in which parents thanked the God for their children’s survival and celebrated their health when they turned three, five or seven.
Parents in today’s Japan pray for their children’s happiness, as did parents in the ancient times. But their prayers cannot be always met.
We can now return to our sweet home in the capital,
but this return trip cannot cure our sadness at all;
We have lost our dear daughter who should have been here with us.
(A personal translation)
This is a waka poem composed by Ki Tsurayuki, one of the greatest waka poets in the Heian period, who lost his young daughter due to illness while he was governor of Tosa, the current Kochi Prefecture, western Japan. He left many poems about his dead daughter in his diary-style work, the Diary of Tosa, which depicted his return journey with his wife to the capital after their four years of life there. (Readers may be advised to see the post published on May 19, 2009.)
In Japan today, many sources of stress and difficulties are seen everywhere for parents and children. The number of suicides in Japan for a year has been in excess of 30,000 in recent years. Newspapers report increasing numbers of cases linked to child abuse and school bullying. On Oct. 23, a 12-year-old schoolgirl in Gunma Prefecture killed herself. Her parents claim she had been bullied at school, but school officials have not acknowledged her suicide can be blamed on bullying.
The season has come around for parents to celebrate their children’s health and happiness by dressing them up for the shichi-go-san festival. In the meantime, Japanese children and parents are exposed to an even harder situation in a competition-oriented social mood. The situation may be taken to indicate that Japan’s society is becoming bipolar under the cover of the seamingly happy mood.
Japanese parents busy dressing up children for “Seven-five-three” festival
November is one of the busiest periods of the year for Japanese parents, especially those with three- and seven-year-old daughters and five-year-old sons. Shinto shrines across Japan are filled with kimono-clad small children, accompanied by their parents and sometimes, by their grandparents as well, on weekends around this time of the year. They are busy taking care of their beloved ones all the time when they visit shrines all together for the “shichi-go-san” (seven-five-three) festival and offer thanks for the children’s good health and pray for the God’s help for their future.
Samukawa Shrine, a time-honored Shinto shrine in Kanagawa Prefecture, attracted hundreds of families for the festival on a clear day last weekend. The garden in front of the shrine’s main building became a picture-shooting theater for fathers, mothers and their children.
The original style of the shichi-go-san festival dates back to the Heian period from the late eighth century to the 12th century. Until around the 19th century, Japan’s infant mortality rate was very high. Children were recognized as true humans only when they grew up to three, five or seven years old. “Before seven, among the Gods.” This is a saying in the ancient times that indicates people believed that babies and infants live in a place between the other world and this world and they can be returned anytime to the God’s side. This led to a custom in which parents thanked the God for their children’s survival and celebrated their health when they turned three, five or seven.
Parents in today’s Japan pray for their children’s happiness, as did parents in the ancient times. But their prayers cannot be always met.
We can now return to our sweet home in the capital,
but this return trip cannot cure our sadness at all;
We have lost our dear daughter who should have been here with us.
(A personal translation)
This is a waka poem composed by Ki Tsurayuki, one of the greatest waka poets in the Heian period, who lost his young daughter due to illness while he was governor of Tosa, the current Kochi Prefecture, western Japan. He left many poems about his dead daughter in his diary-style work, the Diary of Tosa, which depicted his return journey with his wife to the capital after their four years of life there. (Readers may be advised to see the post published on May 19, 2009.)
In Japan today, many sources of stress and difficulties are seen everywhere for parents and children. The number of suicides in Japan for a year has been in excess of 30,000 in recent years. Newspapers report increasing numbers of cases linked to child abuse and school bullying. On Oct. 23, a 12-year-old schoolgirl in Gunma Prefecture killed herself. Her parents claim she had been bullied at school, but school officials have not acknowledged her suicide can be blamed on bullying.
The season has come around for parents to celebrate their children’s health and happiness by dressing them up for the shichi-go-san festival. In the meantime, Japanese children and parents are exposed to an even harder situation in a competition-oriented social mood. The situation may be taken to indicate that Japan’s society is becoming bipolar under the cover of the seamingly happy mood.
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