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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.
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.
These included the New Year, five occasions marking the turn of seasons, and a number of days marking events related to [[Tokugawa clan]] history; among these was 6/1, an auspicious day in the East Asian tradition generally, but also said to mark the date of the Tokugawa entry into the [[Kanto|Kantô]]. The shogun also held audiences with certain categories or individuals on the 1st, 15th, and 28th days of each month.<ref>At some point in the early 19th century, this third monthly audience, held on the 28th, was reduced from taking place every month, to instead taking place only in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 12th months of the year. Asao Naohiro (ed.), ''Fudai daimyô Ii ke no girei'', Hikone Castle Museum (2004), 57.</ref>
These included the New Year, five occasions (''[[gosekku]]'') marking the turn of seasons, and a number of days marking events related to [[Tokugawa clan]] history. The shogun also held audiences with certain categories or individuals on the 1st, 15th, and 28th days of each month.<ref>At some point in the early 19th century, this third monthly audience, held on the 28th, was reduced from taking place every month, to instead taking place only in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 12th months of the year. Asao Naohiro (ed.), ''Fudai daimyô Ii ke no girei'', Hikone Castle Museum (2004), 57.</ref>
Annual ritual events in which the shogun himself participated also included visits to the shogunal mausolea at [[Zojo-ji|Zôjô-ji]], [[Kan'ei-ji]], and [[Momijiyama]], on the anniversaries of the deaths of his predecessors.<ref name=asao59>Asao, 59.</ref>
Annual ritual events in which the shogun himself participated also included visits to the shogunal mausolea at [[Zojo-ji|Zôjô-ji]], [[Kan'ei-ji]], and [[Momijiyama]], on the anniversaries of the deaths of his predecessors.<ref name=asao59>Asao, 59.</ref>
Lower-ranking samurai retainers who would not normally be entitled to a shogunal audience were permitted to prostrate themselves and offer New Year's greetings on the sixth day of the new year; the abbot of [[Rinno-ji|Rinnô-ji]] in [[Nikko|Nikkô]] enjoyed a private face-to-face meeting with the shogun on the first day of the second month each year.
Lower-ranking samurai retainers who would not normally be entitled to a shogunal audience were permitted to prostrate themselves and offer New Year's greetings on the sixth day of the new year; the abbot of [[Rinno-ji|Rinnô-ji]] in [[Nikko|Nikkô]] enjoyed a private face-to-face meeting with the shogun on the first day of the second month each year.
==Gosekku==
The five seasonal observances observed both in the Imperial court, and by the Tokugawa shogunate, were:<ref> Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.), Told Round a Brushwood Fire, University of Tokyo Press (1979), 286n122.; Gallery label, Freer Gallery of Art, "Gosekku: The Five Ancient Festivals of the Imperial Court," Ikeda Koson, set of five hanging scrolls, c. 1830, F1999.5.1a-f. </ref>
*''Jinjitsu no sekku'' - 1st month, 7th day. Seven herbs were eaten. Also known as ''Nanakusa no sekku'', ''Wakana no sekku''.
*''Jômi no sekku'' or ''Jôshi'' - 3/3, Girls' Festival, Dolls Festival, aka [[Hina matsuri]].
*''[[Tango no sekku]]'' - 5/5, Boys' Festival.
*''[[Tanabata]]'' - 7/7, the festival of the Weaver Star.
*''Chôyô no sekku'' - 9/9, Chrysanthemum Festival. A festival in connection with the rice harvest, and related to one in China which involved the drinking of chrysanthemum wine.
==Tokugawa Festivals==
Festival days specifically associated with commemorating or celebrating events related to the shogunate included:
*''Kashô'' 嘉祥, celebrated on 6/16. A celebration of [[Tokugawa Ieyasu|Tokugawa Ieyasu's]] victory in the [[1573]] [[battle of Mikatagahara]]. After the battle, his retainer Ôkubo Fujigorô supposedly gifted Ieyasu with an amount of sweets, as a gift in celebration of the victory; Ieyasu then distributed the sweets among some number of his other retainers, and in commemoration or reenactment of this event, every year on ''kashô'', the shogun would receive retainers in audience in the Ôhiroma (Grand Audience Hall) of [[Edo castle]], and would distribute sixteen types of sweets, including ''[[manju]]'' and ''[[yokan|yôkan]]'', to his retainers.<ref name=edojo>''Edojô'' 江戸城, Tokyo: Gakushu Kenkyusha (1995), 120.</ref>
*''[[Hassaku]]'' 八朔, celebrated on 8/1. This date was a harvest festival traditionally, but in the Tokugawa period was simultaneously observed as a celebration of Tokugawa Ieyasu's first victorious entry into [[Edo]] in [[1590]].<ref name=edojo/> A celebration of the autumn harvest, and of the first fruits of the agricultural year, ''hassaku'' was also a traditional occasion for samurai (as well as Imperial Court nobles, and others) to give gifts to their lords or superiors, as a show of gratitude for their favor. This was one of two annual festivals during which ''daimyô'' presented swords, as a show of fealty, to the shogun.
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