Japanese traditions

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1. Introduction

Japanese have a lot of different traditions and customs that every citizen respect. In this essay, I will review some traditions which find place in Japan.

1. Japanese bowing

Originally in the past, bowing was a direct reflection of status. This means that if you meet a person with a higher social status, you need to be in a more vulnerable position of a bow. Nowadays, bowing in the Japanese society has much more functions than the original intent. The following situations are example which requires you to bow:

• When you greet someone;
• When you start or end a class, a meeting or even a ceremony;
• When you thank somebody;
• When you apologize to someone;
• When you congratulate someone;
• When you venerate someone or even something.

There three main different types of bowing. The informal bow which involves that you must bow at an angle about 15 degrees or simply tilt over one’s head to the front. The second one is the formal bow at 30 degree angle. The last one is the more formal one where bows are really deeper.

1. Setsubun

Setsubun is a traditional event in Japan that marks the beginning of the spring. This event is celebrated on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th of February depending on the Japanese lunar calendar. During all the day people eat and throw beans in order to expulse the evil winter demons and welcome good fortune. What does have beans to do with this? Actually beans represents the vitality. Japanese consider that beans drive the evil spirits away from their houses which  may cause misfortune and bring bad health for people living in the house. Moreover, behind beans throwing hide a secret meaning. Indeed, in Japanese the word bean and eye of demons are similar in the pronunciation. So this is why Japanese throw the beans because it is similar to destroy the eye of the demons. The event can be celebrated at you house or even in public. If they do it at home they have to throw beans in front of the entrance door or on a family member who is dressed like a demon and they have to sing the following :”Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi” which means demons out and good fortune in. On the other hand you can go to public Setsubun celebration where famous Japanese people are designated as the bean-throwers.

1. Dondo-Yaki

The Dondo-Yaki is also a traditional event which find place the middle of January around the 15th. This event generally take place in open areas such as rice field, grounds of temple or a riverbed. The people make a bamboo construction as a pyramid to put fire in it. The aim of this tradition is to burn New Year decorations and also the first calligraphy writing that people did at the beginning of the New Year which is named in Japanese : Kakizome. Another custom is to burn good-luck charms from last year because Japanese believes that if you keep a good-luck charm for more than one year it will bring you bad luck. Many tales related to Dondo-Yaki were passed on. One of them is that if you eat a Mochi in front of the fire you will stay healthy for the whole year.

1. Koinbori

Koinboru means in English carp streamer. Koinbori is a carp-shaped windsocks that flown in Japan during a special event. This event is the Children’s day. This event takes place the 5th of May which is the last day of the Golden Week. By the way, the golden week is the longest holidays for workers. This tradition is repeated each year in honor of the children so that they can have a good future and that they will grow up healthy and very strong. The colour and the size of the carp-shaped windsocks have both a meaning. Generally, the biggest and black carp which find place on the top is dedicated to the father. After there is another big one that is dedicated for the mother which is usually red or pink. The other carp are dedicated for the children which will have different colours and size for each child. They will be placed in decreasing order by ages of children. Finally, those koinbori are generally placed on the top of the houses where there are children living in it.

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