Tokugawa seasonal observances

Under the Tokugawa shogunate, daimyô, hatamoto, other retainers, and others in service to the shogunate 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 (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.

Annual ritual events in which the shogun himself participated also included visits to the shogunal mausolea at Zôjô-ji, Kan'ei-ji, and Momijiyama, on the anniversaries of the deaths of his predecessors.

New 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. These practices were first put into place by Tokugawa Hidetada, and were continued by his successor, becoming standard practice by the time of Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune (r. 1716-1751).

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 kuroshoin and shiroshoin, respectively the innermost (and thus most private/elite) and middle-ranking of the castle's three chief audience halls. The daimyô presented swords as gifts to the shogun and bowed in designated ways, at designated places within (or just outside of) the room, in accordance with their rank, shared a cup of saké with the shogun, and received gifts from him, including "seasonal clothing" (jifuku.

Following a banquet, these daimyô would then arrange themselves on the lowest of the three levels (dan) in the Ôhiroma, the outermost, least private/elite, but largest and most formal of the audience halls, which was 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 in the "second" and "third" rooms attached to the audience hall (ni-no-ma and san-no-ma), along with a multitude of hatamoto, priests, doctors, court painters, and the like. They all lay prostrate as the sliding screens (fusuma) separating these secondary rooms from the main audience hall were opened, and the shogun silently surveyed the gathering. A member of the rôjû then declared, on behalf of the shogun, an expression of good wishes for the new year; the screens were closed, and the shogun took his place in the upper level (jôdan) of the Ôhiroma. After a reception in which 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.

The first Noh performance of the year generally took place on the third day of the year, after which the performers received new robes, as formal gifts, on behalf of the shogun. The third day of the month also included audiences with prominent merchant officials from Edo, Kyoto, Nara, Fushimi and Osaka, as well as elders from some of the chief cities and fudai domains.

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 Rinnô-ji in 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:

• 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'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 yôkan, to his retainers.

• 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. 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.

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), 338-340.