昨日から大寒に入っています。けれども、これは立春の前日までなので、春も近いということのようです。
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The “coldest season of the year” according to the traditional calendar began just yesterday, however, it will only last till the previous day of the “first day of spring”.
Coldest days/
Noise of grinding an inkstick/
So quiet/
Translation and calligraphy by Tomoko
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今日は小正月ですが、近所の下鴨神社では「長寿粥」と称した小豆粥が授けられていましたので、テイクアウトをお願いしてきました。
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On January 15, we have a tradition of eating porridge with adzuki beans. Since in Shimogamo Shrine near my house, bowls of adzuki beans porridge as “porridge praying for longevity” were endowed, I asked them for a takeaway service.
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こちらにはコンパクトに神様たちが集まっておられると聞いたからです。
詳しくは、綺麗な写真と一緒にこちらの記事をどうぞ！ 大変な人出で写真がうまく撮れなかったからです。しかも、縁起物を付けてもらった笹を持って電車で帰るのはちょっと恥ずかしいということにも気づいてしまいました。
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I visited Sennyuji Temple for a special festivity of Seven Deities of Good Fortune (in Japanese), because I heard this was where all the gods were enshrined in a rather small space.
As for this event, please refer to this article (in Japanese) with more details and beautiful photographs, since I didn’t get to take good pictures because there were so many visitors. On top of that, I felt a little embarrassed riding a train back holding a bamboo branch with good luck charms.
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気温は低いです。しかも、時雨れてもいます。けれども、陽が射すと世の中がぱっと明るくなり、春に向かっているなと実感します。
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It is surely cold, on top of that, we have intermittent light showers. However, I have actual sensation of approaching spring when the sun shines and everything suddenly lights up.
＜To the homepage of this website.＞
近所のスーパーに行ったら、入り口近くでいきなり「苺大福を作りませんか？」というポップと大福餅と苺が並べてあるのが目につきました。更には、ただの大福餅に十字に切れ目を入れて苺が一つ押し込んである見本もいくつかありました。
単純な私は、そこですぐに大福餅と苺をかごに入れました。
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When I went grocery shopping at a nearby supermarket, at the entrance, I noticed a small piece of in-store advertisement saying “Why don’t make Ichigo (strawberry) Daifuku yourself?” And with it, daifukumochi and strawberries were sold side by side, and some samples of homemade-looking Ichigo (strawberry) Daifuku as well, that is, a daifukumochi with a cross-shaped cut and a strawberry crammed in it.
As a simple person, I put a packet of daifukumochi and a packet of strawberries in my basket right then and there.
Red but a little/
Sour are/
Strawberries/
Translation and calligraphy by Tomoko
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七草粥の由来と言えば、お正月のご馳走で疲れた胃腸を休ませるために、野菜を摂るようにするのだ、という説が出回っていますが、本来は、「須弥山の南にいるある鳥は八千年もの長生きをする。この鳥は春の初め毎に七種類の草を食べて、それでそんなにも長生きなのだ」という七草草紙にある神話のようなお話が謂れだという話も聞きます。確かに、多くの人たちがまだ貧しかった時代にお正月とはいえ飽食なんて考えられないから、この俗説にはあまり説得力が感じられません。
この記事のカテゴリを「その他」だけでなくて、「湧書会」も選んでいるのは、このことを前回のお稽古のときに習ったからです。良い先生に出逢うというのは、本当にありがたいことです。彼女に師事していなければ、私はずっとこの薄っぺらな俗説だけを信じ込んでいたと思います。
また、この話は、親孝行の勧めを説いたものだそうです。
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In Japan, we have had a custom of eating rice porridge with seven kinds of spring herbs on January 7. And the most widely believed theory about its origin is that it is to ease your fatigued stomach from the New Year’s feasting by taking in vegetables.
However, in an old fairy-tale book about 600 years ago has a story that goes:
a bird living somewhere south of Mount Meru enjoys 8,000 years of longevity. It collects and eats seven kinds of grasses in early spring every year, which enables it to live for so long.
And there is another theory that a real origin of the custom stems from the above story. To be sure, it is unlikely that people got food satiation even from the New Year’s meals in old times when most people were still very poor. The popular theory people now often talk about doesn’t sound quite persuasive.
The reason I chose “Yushokai” as well as “Others” as categories for this article is I learned this story about a bird with a long life in the last practice session I attended. It is such a blessing to have a good teacher. Without her teachings I would continue believing only the superficial myth just as many people do nowadays.
Additionally, the story’s moral is to encourage people to be filial to their parents.
The first photo shows a packet of seven spring herbs I got at a nearby supermarket.
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４日ほど前にどっさり降った雪がまだ日の当たらない場所などには残っていますので、冬とか雪とかをテーマにした詩を書きました。
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Because some of the great snowfall about four days ago stayed in places where little sunlight reaches, I chose a poem about things such as winter season and snow as a material.
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この２〜３日、ちょっと珍しいぐらいの積雪で、あちらこちらに雪だるまが立っていました。
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For these a couple of days, we have had a substantial snowfall and I saw snowmen built here and there.
Snowman/
Left alone/
After being made up/
Translation and calligraphy by Tomoko
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新年早々、まさかの大雪でした。
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We unexpectedly had a heavy snowfall at the beginning of the New Year.
Color of vermilion/
Of complete honesty/
Translation and calligraphy by Tomoko
＜To the homepage of this website.＞
本年もよろしくお願い申し上げます。
近くのスーパーで買ってきたお花とうちの裏庭の万年青と一緒に飾ってみました。
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Best wishes for a successful and rewarding year!
The photos show my work with flowers from a neighborhood supermarket and some leaves of rohdea or Japanese sacred lily from our back garden.
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