The Chrysanthemum Festival
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 When people used the lunar calendar, there were five days in the year called sekku. The word sekku means the special days that people held particularly important traditional events on each year. These five feasts called sekku were the seventh day of the first month, the third day of the third month, the fifth day of the fifth month, the seventh day of the seventh month, and the ninth day of the ninth month. They were called Jinjitsu, Joshi, Tango, Tanabata, and Choyo. Joshi is known as the Doll's Festival for girls and Tango is known as the Boys' Festival. People held traditional events and prepared special foods on each of
the five feasts. |
| The ninth day of the ninth month was known as the Choyo Festival or the Chrysanthemum Festival. Chrysanthemums originally came from China, but chrysanthemums and cherry blossoms are both considered typical Japanese flowers. The chrysanthemums were believed to be auspicious flowers denoting longevity and eternal youth, and they were used as medicinal herbs in China. Painters in China and Japan preferred to paint the chrysanthemum, orchid, bamboo, and ume (Japanese plum) flower, which were regarded as the four noble flowers, in India ink. The chrysanthemum is also closely related to the Imperial Family. A chrysanthemum crest is used as the Imperial crest. It is an open chrysanthemum with sixteen complete radiated petals. The Imperial Court used to hold a banquet for chrysanthemum viewing on the day of the Chrysanthemum (Choyo) Festival. Today, chrysanthemum doll exhibitions and chrysanthemum flower shows take place in many places throughout Japan around September 9th. |
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India ink paintings Paintings in India ink are called sumie in Japanese. Sumie only use India ink and do not use any other pigments. Among sumie, paintings that use various techniques of shading and gradation are called suibokuga in Japanese. Shading and gradation can be obtained through changing the amount of water added to the ink. Ink painting, which was introduced from China to Japan in ancient times, became well-known in the Kamakura period (from 1185 to 1333), and then enjoyed great popularity in the Muromachi period (from 1333 to 1568). It is well-known that a Zen priest named Sesshu, who was actively engaged in India ink painting in the 15th and the 16th centuries, developed the Chinese style of India ink painting into a typically Japanese style of landscape painting that is called sansuiga. The subjects of suibokuga include people, flowers, and birds too. |
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chrysanthemum doll exhibitions Chrysanthemum dolls, which are called kiku-ningyo in Japanese, are life-sized handcrafted figures with clothes made of chrysanthemum blossoms and leaves. Many of the chrysanthemum dolls assume the shapes of characters described in folktales and famous dramas. There are many fascinating chrysanthemum dolls with clothes in a wide variety of colors displayed at chrysanthemum doll exhibitions. |