Star Festival (Tanabata)

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Star Festival (Tanabata)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Early Autumn
***** Category: Observance

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Explanation

Star Festival, "seventh evening" Festival of the Weaver Girl, Tanabata 七夕
..... referring to the double-date of the Asian lunar calendar, the 7th day of the 7th month; now celebrated 7 July in some places, on 7 August in others.
It used to be at the change of the season from summer to autumn (yukiai 交合）, celebrated on the night of the 6th of August until early morning of August 7, when autumn had started.
It has been celebrated since the Heian period in Japan, with the wish that young girls would become proficient in weaving and keeping a good home.


Star festival, hoshi matsuri 星祭
meeting of the stars, hoshi-ai, hoshi ai 星合

the stars of tonight, hoshi koyoi 星今宵
welcoming the stars, hoshi mukae 星迎

bamboo for Tanabata decorations tanabatadake 七夕竹
..... small paper slips (tansaku) with wishes and poems are hung from it

floating Tanabata decorations, sending them off
..... tanabata nagashi 七夕流し
at the end of the festival, the decorations are placed in a small boat and floated in the local river or at the seashore


For more kigo related to Tanabata, check
Stars and Haiku


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http://www.geocities.jp/senribb/FestD2.jpg

According to the old Chinese calendar, this festival is placed in the “Autumn” category of the Haiku Saijiki.
Now it takes place on one of these double-days, the seventh day of the seventh month. In Sendai, it is celebrated at the beginning of August.

The origin of this Tanabata Festival goes back to a legend in China.Two stars, Orihime (Vega, as a weaving girl) and Kengyu (Altair, as a cowherd) who loved each other were separated by another star's jealousy, could meet only once a year in The Milky Way on July 7. According to the Kodansha encyclopedia, the legend was believed and observed by women who prayed to the Weaver Star (Vega) for success in love and proficiency in such skills as sewing and calligraphy in ancient China.
http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/~jclub/festival/tanabata.htm

It is the custom to write some wish on a small and long slip of colored paper and hang it on a large bamboo pole for the gods to see and take care of your wish. Writing a Tanabata slip is very popular in kindergardens and schools. This year, 2004, many children were writing a wish to the effect that peace should come to the world and the war in Iraq end soon.
Some say that the name Tanabata is a compound word of Tana and Hata. Tana means shelf or trellis, and hata means weaving. In ancient times, a maiden serving the god of weaving had to weave a cloth for the god of weaving to drape on a shelf or trellis near a river or lake.
http://home.att.ne.jp/gold/aosara/articles/tanabata.htm

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The Tanabata Festivals of Hiratsuka (July) and Sendai (August) are the most famous in Japan.

At the Tanabata festival in Shonan Hiratsuka, the bamboo decorations which are beautiful and being very big are made throughout the town and a lot of stalls stand in a row.At noon, a parade and a dance attraction and so on are unveil at the main street in Hiratsuka city. Also, at night, the bamboo decorations are lit up beautifully with lights, making the Tanabata festival more luxurious.



On this link you can see all the pictures and listen to some music.
http://www.geocities.jp/senribb/
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Sendai
"Tanabata Matsuri" is considered one of the three major festivals in Northern area Tohoku along with Nebuta Matsuri in Aomori and Kanto Matsuri in Akita. The festival attracts more than 2 million tourists every year. Over a thousand beautifully decorated bamboo ornaments line 2 km of shopping arcades. In the eve, 12,000 individual fireworks color the sky. During the festival, an elaborate Tanabata parade consisting of 2,000 people marches through the city.
[Period]August 6 through 8 every year.
[Location] Aoba-dori and Jozenji-dori
http://www.ikoisouryokan.co.jp/english/e_guide.html




Look at the colorful decorations.
http://www.reggie.net/album.php?albid=856
http://www.reggie.net/photo.php?albid=856&ph=4393958
http://www.reggie.net/photo.php?albid=856&ph=4383842

The Tanabata Parade
http://www.reggie.net/album.php?albid=857


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Worldwide use

Many haiku poets worldwide feel that the MILKY WAY should be a kigo for summer, if at all.
But the milky way is strongly related to the Tanabata festival according to the Asian lunar calendar, so even in Japan, where TANABATA is mostly celebrated in July, it is still a kigo for early autumn.

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USA

In Seatle there was a Tanabata Festival in a Japanese Garden.
There was even a Tanabata Haiku Contest. The following links are from this page.
http://www.napost.com/tanabata.html



Decorated Bamboo Branch


http://www.interq.or.jp/www1/moon2/wahoo/events/tanabata.htm


The Tale of Tanabata -
The Sad Love Story of Orihime and Kengyu
(and other Japanese folk tales)
WKD Library


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Things found on the way

Have a look at a nice pair of Tanabata papermachee dolls, made by the Arai store in Hiratsuka.
Tanabata Daruma 七夕だるま


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HAIKU

Tanabata ya Nozomi o noseru Sasa no fune

Wishes riding
A bamboo boat
To the stars

Steve McCarty
http://www.childresearch.net/RR/POSTER/WAOE.HTM

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the evening we meet
Tanabata is endless
Tomorrow starts another year

Manyoo-shuu (Manyshu) Collection of Poems
http://www.aosara.com/articles/tanabata.htm

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From the files of the WHC, a haiku by Basho:

The Milky Way (according to an ancient legend associated with Star Festival) excites pity for the Altair-Vega couple. They can meet only once a year at the time of the Star Festival called Tanabata in East Asia. Sado recalls the sadness of noble people who were exiled there, such as the famous Noh-dancer Zeami or Saint Nichiren (Buddhist). The violent sound of wind-whipped sea arouses great fear in readers. 　

The images of the Milky Way, Sado and wild sea work in synergy to induce readers to feel hopeless sorrow. Those who are familiar with European history may recall Saint Helena, and the exiled Napoléon Bonaparte, to strengthen their interpretation. The haiku can be interpreted adequately without knowledge of the Star Festival of Tanabata.

Araumi ya: ... wild sea
Sado ni yokotau: ... stretching to Sado Isle
Amanogawa: ... the River in the Sky (Milky Way (literally)
http://www.worldhaikureview.org/pages/whcjapan15.shtml


The translation of Amanogawa, ama no kawa, might lead to the notion that Basho used a self-made metaphor to discribe this heavenly phenomenon, but he did in fact not, he just used the common Japanese word for "Milky Way".

With the introduction of the milky way in a haiku about this day of this festival, Basho also might have built a bridge to the next festival of the souls, O-Bon. Kigo can thus work like the pearls of a rosary to bind together the associations of a Japanese reader.

Gabi Greve

Calendar Systems, Asian Lunar Calendar


荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川
araumi ya Sado ni yokotau amanogawa

O'er wild ocean spray,
All the way to Sado Isle
Spreads the Milky Way
Tr. Dorothy Britton


rough sea/ over Sado Island/ milky way
http://www.worldhaikureview.org/3-1/vintage_tsubaki.shtml


Turbulent the sea—
across to Sado stretches
the Milky Way
http://carlsensei.com/classical/index.php/author/view/1

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Matsunaga Teitoku 松永貞徳 (1571-1653)
Tanabata Haiku


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Related words

***** Leonid Meteor Shower> .. .. Geminid Meteor Shower


***** Bon Festival, O-Bon (Japan)


***** Stars and Haiku



Click for more photos from Japan!


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http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/

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