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John Lindsey
14th November 2000, 18:19
The samurai class in the Edo period used to celebrate the children
at the important stages of their growth. That is, the ceremony of
"Kami-oki" at the age of three, "Hakama-gi" at five, and "Obi-toki"
at seven.

On the other hand, Japanese love odd numbers as auspicious ones.
Hence it may be considered that they have thought the odd numbered
years in the stages of the children's growth are very important and
that the age of three and five for boys, three and seven for girls
should be celebrated. At the end of the Edo period, this ceremony
used to be held on November 15, and it has spread as "Shichi Go San"
thought the country since 1960's.

On November 15, children of these ages are dressed in their best
clothes and taken to a Shinto shrine by their parents. There they
give thanks for their good health and pray for future blessings.
Many girls wear colorfully patterned kimono, usually made specially
for this ceremony. The parents proudly take pictures of their
children and buy them a stick of candy called "chitose-ame", which is
long, thin, red and white candy in bags with "tsuru" (crane) and
"kame" (turtle) illustrations. "Chitose" means one thousand year and
both "tsuru" and "kame" are believed as symbols of long life in Japan.
Also, red and white ("kouhaku") are an auspicious color combination
for the Japanese. All these indicate the wish for children's health
and growth.


I've read that the people in the Nara period loved yellow leaves
rather than scarlet ones, because this period was much influenced
by ancient Chinese culture where yellow was thought to be the most
superior color.

The Yellow River [the Hwang Ho] meandering widely across the continent
of China had brought up the yellow race named "Chuuka minzoku" (the
Chinese people), who has a myth that Koutei (the Yellow Emperor) is one
of the first founders of China. Shibasen began to write the history of
China with the Yellow Emperor.
In classic China, they thought the pure colors were yellow, blue, white,
red, and black, among which yellow was the most supreme.

The last grand sumo tournament this year is now open at Fukuoka.
Tassel of four colors except yellow are hanging from the four corners
of the roof over the sumo ring.

--- S. Shingai


This message was posted with permission from the Nippon Culture mail list. Shingai san runs the mail list and is not a member of e-budo. Visit: http://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~planet/index.html for information on the list

hikari
15th November 2000, 09:40
Today Google (http://www.google.com) has a Shichi-go-san theme:

http://www.google.com/logos/shichigosan.gif