New Year - Nenshi

Greetings and gifts given at the start of the new year. Also called New Year's greetings or New Year's recitations. Originally, New Year's was a ceremony where people gathered at the uji-jinja shrine or the main family home to welcome the new year, but now it refers exclusively to New Year's visits. Called mura-nishiki, makiuchi-nishiki, or aza-rei (letter-rei), visits to villages and neighboring families were widely held. It is common for branch families to visit the main family home, but in some regions, branch families go to open the gates and doors of the main family home early in the morning on New Year's Day, in what are called kado-ake and kado-biraki. Visits to the main family home are accompanied by ceremonies such as kuitsumi (food storage) and tekake (hand-holding). It is a custom to prepare a sanpo (three-tiered altar) with rice or mochi (rice cakes) piled with kelp, kushi-gaki (skewered persimmons), daidai (mandarin oranges), chestnuts, etc., and have the guests touch them with their hands or fans. This is understood to be a practice based on the idea of ​​eating together between the guest and the host, and can already be seen in early modern documents. It is also said that temple monks should make their New Year's visits on the 4th, and that women should make their New Year's visits by Setsubun. While gifts to celebrate the New Year overlapped with otoshidama and became widespread, kairei gradually declined due to the popularity of sending business cards in the Meiji period and the subsequent popularity of new year's cards.

[Masaru Sasaki]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

新年に際しての挨拶(あいさつ)や贈り物のこと。年賀、年礼などともいう。年始は本来、氏神社や本家に集まり、そこで年ごもりをして新しい年を迎える儀式であったといわれるが、現在はもっぱら年頭の回礼を意味している。ムラ年始とかマキウチ年始、あるいはアザレイ（字礼）などといって、村内や近隣への回礼は広く行われていた。分家が本家に出向く本家礼は一般的であるが、カドアケ、カドビラキと称して、分家が元日の早朝に本家の門や戸を開けに行くといった地方もある。回礼にはクイツミ（食積）、テカケ（手掛）といった儀礼が伴う。あらかじめ米や餅(もち)の上に昆布(こんぶ)、串柿(くしがき)、橙(だいだい)、栗(くり)などを積んだ三宝を用意して、回礼の客に手や扇子で触れてもらう風習である。これは客と主側との共食の観念に基づく慣行と解されるが、すでに近世の文献にもみえている。なお、寺の僧の年始回りは4日とか、女性の年始回りは節分までにすればよいなどともいう。新年を祝う贈り物が年玉と重ねられて広く展開したのに対し、回礼は、明治期におこった名刺を送ることや、その後の年賀状の盛行によってしだいに衰退していった。

［佐々木勝］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例