The Romance of the Milky Way | Page 6

the
lovers' meeting:--

Tanabata ya! Amari isogaba, Korobubéshi![3]
But in the province of Izumo, which is a very rainy district, the
contrary belief prevails; and it is thought that if the sky be clear on the
seventh day of the seventh month, misfortune will follow. The local
explanation of this belief is that if the stars can meet, there will be born
from their union many evil deities who will afflict the country with
drought and other calamities.
[Footnote 3: "Ho! Tanabata! if you hurry too much, you will tumble
down!"]
* * * * *
The festival of Tanabata was first celebrated in Japan on the seventh
day of the seventh month of Tomby[=o] Sh[=o]h[=o] (A.D. 755).
Perhaps the Chinese origin of the Tanabata divinities accounts for the
fact that their public worship was at no time represented by many
temples.
I have been able to find record of only one temple to them, called
Tanabata-jinja, which was situated at a village called Hoshiaimura, in
the province of Owari, and surrounded by a grove called
Tanabata-mori.[4]
[Footnote 4: There is no mention, however, of any such village in any
modern directory.]
Even before Temby[=o] Sh[=o]h[=o], however, the legend of the
Weaving-Maiden seems to have been well known in Japan; for it is
recorded that on the seventh night of the seventh year of Y[=o]r[=o]
(A.D. 723) the poet Yamagami no Okura composed the song:--
Amanogawa, Ai-muki tachité, Waga koïshi Kimi kimasu nari--
Himo-toki makina![5]
It would seem that the Tanabata festival was first established in Japan
eleven hundred and fifty years ago, as an Imperial Court festival only,

in accordance with Chinese precedent. Subsequently the nobility and
the military classes everywhere followed imperial example; and the
custom of celebrating the Hoshi-mat-suri, or Star-Festival,--as it was
popularly called,--spread gradually downwards, until at last the seventh
day of the seventh month became, in the full sense of the term, a
national holiday. But the fashion of its observance varied considerably
at different eras and in different provinces.
[Footnote 5: For a translation and explanation of this song, see infra,
page 30.]
The ceremonies at the Imperial Court were of the most elaborate
character: a full account of them is given in the K[=o]ji Kongen,--with
explanatory illustrations. On the evening of the seventh day of the
seventh month, mattings were laid down on the east side of that portion
of the Imperial Palace called the Seir-y[=o]den; and upon these
mattings were placed four tables of offerings to the Star-deities.
Besides the customary food-offerings, there were placed upon these
tables rice-wine, incense, vases of red lacquer containing flowers, a
harp and flute, and a needle with five eyes, threaded with threads of
five different colors. Black-lacquered oil-lamps were placed beside the
tables, to illuminate the feast. In another part of the grounds a tub of
water was so placed as to reflect the light of the Tanabata-stars; and the
ladies of the Imperial Household attempted to thread a needle by the
reflection. She who succeeded was to be fortunate during the following
year. The court-nobility (Kugé) were obliged to make certain offerings
to the Imperial House on the day of the festival. The character of these
offerings, and the manner of their presentation, were fixed by decree.
They were conveyed to the palace upon a tray, by a veiled lady of rank,
in ceremonial dress. Above her, as she walked, a great red umbrella
was borne by an attendant. On the tray were placed seven tanzaku
(longilateral slips of fine tinted paper for the writing of poems); seven
kudzu-leaves;[6] seven inkstones; seven strings of s[=o]men (a kind of
vermicelli); fourteen writing-brushes; and a bunch of yam-leaves
gathered at night, and thickly sprinkled with dew. In the palace grounds
the ceremony began at the Hour of the Tiger,--4 A.M. Then the
inkstones were carefully washed,--prior to preparing the ink for the

writing of poems in praise of the Star-deities,--and each one set upon a
kudzu-leaf. One bunch of bedewed yam-leaves was then laid upon
every inkstone; and with this dew, instead of water, the writing-ink was
prepared. All the ceremonies appear to have been copied from those in
vogue at the Chinese court in the time of the Emperor Ming-Hwang.
[Footnote 6: Pueraria Thunbergiana.]
* * * * *
It was not until the time of the Tokugawa Sh[=o]gunate that the
Tanabata festival became really a national holiday; and the popular
custom of attaching tansaku of different colors to freshly-cut bamboos,
in celebration of the occasion, dates only from the era of Bunser (1818).
Previously the tanzaku had been made of a very costly quality of paper;
and the old aristocratic ceremonies had been not less expensive than
elaborate. But in the time of the Tokugawa Sh[=o]gunate a very cheap
paper of various colors was manufactured; and