Shōgatsu: welcoming the New Year

Preparing the home

Cleaning and decorating prepare a household for the year ahead. Japan’s agriculture ministry connects the visiting toshigami with harvests and family ancestors. An account supervised by folklorist Takanori Shintani describes historical and regional variations, including ancestral visitors and deities who bring another year of life and good fortune. Kadomatsu welcomes the deity and provides a temporary New Year dwelling; kagami mochi is an offering. Two round rice cakes topped with a daidai citrus fruit are a familiar form.

Sharing New Year food

Osechi can be shared with the New Year deity after being offered; at kagami-biraki, the rice cakes are taken down and eaten in the hope of sharing the vitality and good fortune believed to reside in them. Zōni, the New Year rice-cake soup, is a separate food custom: its mochi need not have been part of a kagami mochi offering.

Two regional forms of ozoni

Tokyo-style zōni combines toasted rectangular mochi with chicken and greens, then adds a clear broth made with kelp and bonito. In Kagawa’s anmochi zōni, a round rice cake encloses sweet bean paste and is softened by boiling; white-miso soup, daikon and red carrot complete the bowl. Families vary these regional recipes further.

Temple bells and New Year visits

Hatsumōde is the first shrine or temple visit of the year. It is distinct from the ringing of temple bells on New Year’s Eve.

Greetings and games

Greetings, New Year cards, money gifts to children and games such as battledore and shuttlecock or kite-flying belong to overlapping social customs. Families choose which of these customs to observe.

First dreams and first calligraphy

Hatsuyume is the first dream of the New Year, though the night meant by the term has varied. Edo customs included placing a treasure-ship picture beneath the pillow to invite a fortunate dream. Kakizome is the year’s first calligraphy or painting, often using auspicious words or wishes. It is commonly held on 2 January, with local variations.

Matsunouchi refers to the period when New Year decorations remain in place, often ending on the seventh or fifteenth depending on local custom. Kagami-biraki involves taking down and eating the rice-cake offering. Little New Year, around the middle of the month, includes local harvest prayers and other community observances. Dates for these observances vary locally.

New Year at court

New Year at the imperial court followed a ceremonial calendar of its own. The Ganjitsu no Sechie is recorded in the Nara period and was usually held in the Shishinden in Heian times: greetings were followed by an imperial banquet, music and gifts. This was a court banquet, distinct from household osechi. Some court ceremonies later ceased. The esoteric Buddhist Goshichinichi no Mishi, begun in 835 and held on the eighth through fourteenth days of the first month, ceased after 1460 as court finances weakened. It was revived only in 1623.

Solar and lunar New Year

Japan adopted the solar calendar from 1 January 1873, moving the public New Year to its present date. The earlier lunisolar calendar used lunar months alongside seasonal markers. Okinawa offers examples of Lunar New Year continuing beside the January celebrations. Families and communities differ in which celebrations they observe.

Lunar New Year in Itoman

Fishing communities in Itoman continued to celebrate Lunar New Year. A city archival photograph from around 1960 records boats returning for Lunar New Year, with fishing flags marking the new year and prayers for safe navigation. Pine and bamboo decorated the bows of sabani boats brought ashore.

Transport, post and seasonal shopping

Modern transport reshaped New Year visits. The National Diet Library traces one example at Kawasaki Daishi: Edo-period visits followed auspicious directions or the first festival day, while the railway opened in 1872 made access easier. By the mid-1880s, New Year’s Day visits were becoming established without those earlier restrictions. Greetings changed too. Modern postal services began in 1871 and postcards followed in 1873. Lottery-number New Year postcards were first issued in December 1949 for the 1950 New Year. Broadcasting, seasonal sales and lucky bags added further settings for celebration.

Boxed meals and school ceremonies

The familiar boxed osechi meal also took shape over time. Folklorist Takanori Shintani notes that a late-Edo cookbook treated ceremonial food and New Year dishes packed in stacked boxes separately. During the Taishō and Shōwa periods, magazines helped present regional New Year foods as a shared osechi repertoire. A colour illustration of Kamigata-style boxed dishes in the January 1918 Fujin no Tomo is one example; wider food distribution after the war helped spread such practices. Schools supplied another modern setting: in 1893 the education ministry selected “Ichigatsu Ichijitsu” as a ceremonial New Year song.