Picking food - Kuitsumi

Japanese: 喰摘み - くいつみ

...In Shikoku and other areas, there is a custom called "mon-aki" in which all members of a branch family go to open the front door of the main family early in the morning on New Year's Day. Such family events have expanded to include local ties and other areas, and have evolved into the custom of visiting all households in a village, and in cities, the custom of visiting customers in a merchant's house, visiting superiors at work, and even the development of New Year's cards that do not involve any visits at all. In addition, there is a custom of serving and pretending to eat food decorated on the three sides to entertain New Year's guests, called "kuitsumimi" and "tekake," which is a formalization of this original custom of gods and humans eating together. [Iwamoto Michiya]...

From [Hospitality]

…The custom of showing hospitality to guests by providing them with food, drink, and lodging is found in almost every society, but in a society where the authority of the state has not yet fully penetrated the hearts of the people, this hospitality has a much greater significance than in modern societies. First of all, in such societies, the hospitality of visiting guests is not left to the discretion of the individual, but is generally considered a social obligation performed by the family or kinship group. There is a famous episode in Homer's Iliad in which two opposing warriors immediately cease fighting when they find out that their ancestors were bound together by hospitality (more on this later), which shows that in Homer's time in Greece, the bond of hospitality was something that was inherited. …

*Some of the terminology that refers to "kuitsumimi" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

Japanese:

…四国などには，元日の朝早く分家一同が本家の表戸を開けに行く門開きと呼ばれる習俗も残されており，こうした一族の行事が地縁その他に拡張され，村年始といった全戸を回礼する習俗や，また都市にいたっては商家の顧客回りや職場の上司への年始，さらには訪問をいっさい欠いた年賀状の発達などに進展していったものと思われる。なお，年始客の接待に喰摘み，手掛けなどといい，三方にあしらった食物を出し食べるまねをさせる習俗があるが，これもこうした本来の神人共食が形式化したものである。【岩本通弥】。…

【もてなし】より

…客人に飲食や宿舎を与えてもてなす風習はほとんどあらゆる社会にみられるが，国家の権威が人心にいまだ十分浸透していない段階では，こうしたもてなしは，近代社会における場合とは比較にならぬほど大きな意義をもっている。　まず，そのような社会では，訪れる客のもてなしは個人の自由裁量にゆだねられるものではなく，一般に家や親族集団を単位として行われる社会的義務とみなされている。ホメロスの《イーリアス》の中に，敵対する2人の戦士が，互いの先祖がもてなしによって結ばれた関係にあることを知ると，ただちに戦いをやめるという有名なエピソードがあるが(詳しくは後述)，それなどはホメロスの時代のギリシアにおいて，もてなしの紐帯（ちゆうたい）が〈相続〉されるものであったことを物語るものであろう。…

※「喰摘み」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について | 情報

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