Changes

Under the [[Tokugawa shogunate]], New Year's observances at [[Edo castle]] included the [[shogun]]'s reception of ''daimyô'' and other retainers, among others, on the first three days of the new year. All ''daimyô'' resident in [[Edo]] at the time were obliged to appear at the castle on each of these first three days.

Under the [[Tokugawa shogunate]], ''[[daimyo|daimyô]]'', ''[[hatamoto]]'', other retainers, and others in service to the shogunate<ref>Including [[court painters]], [[Noh]] performers, priests and monks of certain temples and shrines, and artisans & merchants who were official providers of goods to the shogunate.</ref> were obliged to appear at [[Edo castle]] to pay obeisances, and/or to offer gifts, on certain occasions of every year.

 

 

New Year's observances at [[Edo castle]] included the [[shogun]]'s reception of ''daimyô'' and other retainers, among others, on the first three days of the new year. All ''daimyô'' resident in [[Edo]] at the time were obliged to appear at the castle on each of these first three days.

On the first day of the new year, the shogun would first grant audiences to his direct relatives, the lords of the [[Maeda clan]], and the chief ''fudai daimyô'', who were received in the castle's ''shiroshoin'', the middle-ranking of the castle's three chief audience halls. Following a banquet, these ''daimyô'' would arrange themselves on the lowest of the three ''dan'' (platforms/daises) in the ''Ôhiroma'', the most formal of the audience halls, and that used for receptions of those lower in rank, or with less strong relationships with the shogunate; the remaining ''daimyô'', both ''fudai'' and ''tozama'', were arranged outside of the ''dan'', in the first anteroom (''ni-no-ma''), along with a multitude of ''[[hatamoto]]'', priests, doctors, court painters, and the like. They all lay prostrate as the doors separating the anteroom and the ''dan'' were opened, and the shogun silently surveyed the gathering. A member of the ''[[roju|rôjû]]'' then declared, on behalf of the shogun, an expression of good wishes for the new year; the doors were closed, and the shogun took his place at the upper dais, or ''dan'', of the ''Ôhiroma''. After a reception in which [[sake|saké]] was drunk, the shogun returned to the ''shiroshoin'', where he received New Year's greetings from staff members of his court, including [[Noh]] performers, painters, and pages.

On the first day of the new year, the shogun would first grant audiences to his direct relatives, the lords of the [[Maeda clan]], and the chief ''fudai daimyô'', who were received in the castle's ''shiroshoin'', the middle-ranking of the castle's three chief audience halls. Following a banquet, these ''daimyô'' would arrange themselves on the lowest of the three ''dan'' (platforms/daises) in the ''Ôhiroma'', the most formal of the audience halls, and that used for receptions of those lower in rank, or with less strong relationships with the shogunate; the remaining ''daimyô'', both ''fudai'' and ''tozama'', were arranged outside of the ''dan'', in the first anteroom (''ni-no-ma''), along with a multitude of ''[[hatamoto]]'', priests, doctors, court painters, and the like. They all lay prostrate as the doors separating the anteroom and the ''dan'' were opened, and the shogun silently surveyed the gathering. A member of the ''[[roju|rôjû]]'' then declared, on behalf of the shogun, an expression of good wishes for the new year; the doors were closed, and the shogun took his place at the upper dais, or ''dan'', of the ''Ôhiroma''. After a reception in which [[sake|saké]] was drunk, the shogun returned to the ''shiroshoin'', where he received New Year's greetings from staff members of his court, including [[Noh]] performers, painters, and pages.

==References==

==References==

*Anne Walthall, "Hiding the shoguns: Secrecy and the nature of political authority in Tokugawa Japan," in Bernard Scheid and Mark Teeuwen (eds.) ''The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion'', Routledge (2006), 338-339.  

*Anne Walthall, "Hiding the shoguns: Secrecy and the nature of political authority in Tokugawa Japan," in Bernard Scheid and Mark Teeuwen (eds.) ''The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion'', Routledge (2006), 338-340.  

[[Category:Edo Period]]

[[Category:Edo Period]]

[[Category:Events and Incidents]]

[[Category:Events and Incidents]]