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January is called shogatsu under the lunar calendar.
Earlier, the month was called musubitsuki or mutsuki, for
short, meaning a month when friends and relatives get
together.
January has other aliases: the early green month, the
royal spring month, the first month of spring and many
more. Since the lunar calendar starts a year about one
and a half month after the solar calendar, its new year
comes with the arrival of spring. That is why people use
seasonﾕs greetings in January that welcome or
celebrate spring.
Most of January falls on Kan, the coldest period of
the year. Kan starts with Kan-no-iri on January fifth,
peaks with Daikan on January 20th and ends on
Setsubun around mid-February.
The typical atmospheric pressure pattern in January
with a high pressure over western Japan and a low
over the eastern Japan brings dry, fair weather to the
Pacific coast and stagnant thick clouds and many
snowy days to the Japan Sea coast.
Cold waves from the Asian continent hit the mountain
ranges that cut through the country from north to
south like a spine. As they hit the mountains, they turn
their damp air into snow. After moisture was taken out
of cold waves, they bring dry, gusty winds down to the
other side of the mountain, regions on the Pacific coast. |
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The New Year’s Day
Welcome the flowery spring
With toso (Sampu)
On the morning of the New Year’s Day, a traditional
Japanese family would take a bath, get fresh water,
clap hands before a household Shinto altar and think
about their ancestors before a Buddhist altar at home.
Family members would then sit around a dining table
and have a cup of toso. The ritual gives a good tension
as families reaches another milestone in their lives.
Many people have dropped the tradition of drinking
toso on the New Year’s Day. Toso was originally medical
sake prescribed by Dr. Huatuo, a distinguished Chinese
doctor in the Wei Dynasty. When taken on the New
Year’s Day, toso is said to repel diseases all year around
and help people live longer.
Toso literally means to kill an evil. Records show Japanese
people first had toso in Heian Period between the
late 8th century and the early 12th century. Toso contains
spices such as cinnamon bark, sansho
(zanthoxylum, kankyo or zingiberis siccatum) byakugyu
(blelilla striana), and saishi (herba asari). These spices
are said to help keep the stomach healthy, bring down
a fever, help urinating, and suppress coughs.
During the New Year’s holidays, people tend to eat
and drink a lot. This is also difficult time for people to
keep regular hours. As a result, they often have problems
in their digestive systems. What’s more, the dry
weather of the season makes people susceptible to
common cold, flu, bronchitis and other respiratory
diseases. Toso’s medical effects help protect people
from having these health problems.
By tradition, all family members sit facing east when
drinking toso. The youngest member of the family is the
first to drink and then pass the cup to older members of
the family in the ascending order.
Osechi New Year Dishes and Celebratory Sake
When the ritual to welcome the arrival of spring is
completed, let’s sit down around a dinner table for the
New Year’s feast.
In a dining room, you might find seasonable flowers
for the New Year - daffodils, senryo (Sarcandra Glabra),
manryo (Ardisia crenata), omoto (Rohdea japonica),
young bamboo trees, kan-tsubaki or (Camellia hiemalis),
and Camellia wabisuke. On the table, you might
find sake cups made of fresh green bamboo.
Osechi dishes are beautiful to watch and appetizing.
Different regions of the country have different dishes
and different ways of serving them. Generally, Osechi
dishes are served in four-tiered boxes in four different
colors symbolizing the four seasons - blue for spring,
white for summer, red for autumn and black for winter.
The first tier is for kuchitori, or appetizers. The second
tier contains namasu, or raw fish and vegetables seasoned
in vinegar. The third tier box features grilled fish.
The fourth tier contains meat and vegetables cooked in
soy-based sauce. When referring to the fourth tier, the
Japanese character for four is replaced with the character
for to give, which sounds the same as four in
Japanese. This is because the number four in Japanese
has the same sound as the Japanese word for death.
Try to take a bid of fish, a bit of meats, and a bit of
everything to keep nutritious balance. Do not drink too
much celebratory sake.
Mizore-zake Sleety Sake
On a rainy day, you might notice something white in
the rain. The rain has turned into sleet. It may turn snow
as the temperature drops at night. How about Mizorezake,
or sleety sake at dinner on a sleety night like this?
Hundreds of years ago, a medical doctor from Nara
Prefecture devised sleety sake when his visited Kyoto.
Sleet falling into the ?sawa pond in the ancient capital
inspired him to invent. He ventured to drink sake with
small crumbs of rice crackers sprinkled on it. People in
those days made much of sake made in Nara called
Nanto-morohaku. Sleety sake made with Nanto-morohaku
became known as one of reputed sake.
Nanto-morohaku was brewed at a vihara or monastery
in Nara during Muromachi Period between late
14th century and late 16th century. It was known for its
unparalleled splendid taste. Around 1560, sake brewing
processes was shifted from the traditional nidan-jikomi,
or double brewing to sandan-jikomi, or triple brewing.
Moreover, a new process was developed to use white
rice (polished rice) instead of the traditional brown rice
(unpolished rice) to make rice malt. The sake made
using this innovative process was called "Morohaku (all
white)" because white rice was used to make both rice
malt and Kakemai (steamed rice to make a mash). |
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Just like sake cups, chopsticks are indispensable
elements for parties, but manners in handling chopsticks
are often neglected. So let’s focus on chopsticks
this time.
Chopsticks are divided into two groups: those for
hare (celebratory occasions) and those for ke (day-today
use).
Celebratory chopsticks are used in Shinto rituals,
New Year’s Day and other celebrations. They are thick
in the middle and taper off toward both ends.
Chopsticks for daily use are the ones people use at
home. They are thick on the top and become thinner
towards the tips.
Disposable chopsticks can serve both purposes. They
come as one piece of wood which can be easily
pulled apart to make two pieces along a groove
engraved in the middle. After they are used once, they
are disposed. Their sanitary and convenient features
and Japanese people’s love for cleanliness have
together helped chopsticks find a wide use. They are
one of utensils only found in Japan.
At a party, disposable chopsticks are generally used.
High quality chopsticks are made of cedar with straight
grains. For general use, chopsticks made of Japanese
cypress, white birch, aspen and bamboo are used.
Japanese cypress is generally considered quality wood
but has little value as a material for disposable chopsticks
because it does not have straight grains, which
make it easy to split chopsticks.
An increasing number of restaurants use disposable
chopsticks made of bamboo to take advantage of
Chinese bamboo chopsticks being imported to Japan
in bulk. But these chopsticks are very hard to pull apart.
Disposable chopsticks find their origin in the Yoshino
region in Nara Prefecture. The region is Japan's largest
cedar producer. Around mid-19th century through the
beginning of Meiji Era, many sake barrels produced in
the region were shipped to major breweries in Itami,
Ikeda and Nada in the neighboring prefectures. Barrel
makers used odd pieces of cedar to make throw-away
chopsticks. Today, with the demand for sake barrels
dwindling, barks and odd pieces of woods left after
producing lumbers for housing materials are used
instead. The interval between tree rings becomes
closer as they go from the center to the bark. The use
of barks therefore gives strength to disposable chopsticks
and makes them hard to break. Disposable
chopsticks types now in use for general public are
Ch?roku, Koban, and Genroku. Disposal chopsticks
made of bamboos are also used.
Choroku chopsticks are plain without any extra
processing. They are named after a coin used by
ordinary people in Edo era between the early 17th
century and mid-19th century.
The Koban is medium quality chopsticks for general
use. They are about one centimeter longer than the
Ch?roku. The Genroku has the highest quality of the
three chopsticks for general public. Genroku chopsticks
are rounded off on the corners and processed to make
it easy to split them.
High quality disposal chopstick types are Rikyu and
Tensoge.
The Rikyu was devised by Sen Rikyu, who founded
the Senke School of tea ceremony. Rikyu chopsticks
are thick in the middle and tapered toward both ends.
The design caught attention of a chopstick maker in
Kyoto. The maker developed Rikyu disposable chopsticks
based on the tea master’s idea.
Tensoge chopsticks have slantly cut tops. Corners on
the chopsticks are not rounded except for the ends,
which are cornered and grooved. Tensoge boasts its
beautiful straight grains.
Tips for Splitting Chopsticks in a Refined Manner
Most people might consider disposable chopsticks as
transient, because they are used only once and
thrown away.
In fact, disposable chopsticks are one of important
utensils that help enrich party occasions. Yet, most
people do not care about that when they pull apart
disposal chopsticks. Such indifferent attitudes in effect
spoil the occasion from the beginning.
If you are right-handed, pick up chopsticks with your
right hand, and bring them to in front of you. Use your
thumb and index finger to pull one piece away from
you. Swing your right arm as if to draw an arc in front of
you. Both men and women should look more elegant
this way than in any other ways.
Keep the Tips of Chopsticks Clean
If you are not careful, your chopsticks will have
pieces of foods not only on the tips but on a wider part
of them. An old saying goes up to three centimeters
from the tips should be used. Be careful not to use
upper part of chopsticks when you eat.
Keep the Chopstick Rest Clean
Don’t put the tips of chopsticks on a chopstick rest.
Doing so does little harm on ceramic chopstick rests or
lacquer-ware. But when a chic sooty bamboo rest is
used at a party, you don’t want soup or sauce on
chopsticks to seep into the rest. Stick out the tips a little
from a rest and keep it dry. |
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Yellowtail
The yellowtail is most delicious this season with its fat
content and flavor at its peak. It is called by different
names in different stages of its life as if it were
promoted. That’s why it is called fish with a successful
career. It is also called by different names in different
regions. In Tokyo, the yellowtail of up to 20 centimeters
is called Wakashi, up to 40 centimeters, Inada, up to 60
centimeters, Warasa, and when it grows longer than 90
centimeters, it is called Buri. Fresh ones are best eaten
raw, i.e. sashimi. The fish is also delicious when grilled, or
seasoned in soy sauce or sake lees.
Being a migratory fish, part of yellowtail meat has a
high blood content. Some people don’t like the part
and remove it when they eat. What a waste! Sharing
the same sort of tissues with a liver, the meat is full of
vitamins. It is rich in Vitamin B1 and B2, and has iron and
potassium, too. It is a nutritious food to go well with
sake. |
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Radish
The daikon radish is on store shelves all year around,
and people do not think much of the vegetable. It is
also called suzushiro, one of seven herbs of spring.
People say the whole family is free of stomachache as
long as they eat daikon radish. The vegetable is at its
peak this time of the year. It can be added to Japanese
oden hotchpotch, a salad, and many other
dishes. In fact, daikon should appear more often at a
drinking party. Grated daikon is indispensable relish for
mochi, or rice cakes and soba or buckwheat noodles.
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