The Japanese New Year's Festival, Games and Pastimes

The text describes customs and practices surrounding the Japanese New Year celebration, tracing its fourteen-day observance from traditional lunar timing to the modern January 1 opening. It explains preparatory rites such as soot-sweeping, the oniyarai demon-expelling with parched beans, special foods, and household decorations like shimenawa straw ropes, gohei paper cuttings, fern fronds, and other talismans. It links some practices to mythic origins and shows how surimono woodblock prints both depict and embellish these ceremonies, while also surveying related games, pastimes, and a museum collection used to illustrate everyday festival life.