Cranes
- Japanese: 鶴 (tsuru)
Several species of cranes are native to Japan. The crane is considered an auspicious symbol, an ancient symbol of longevity throughout East Asia, often coupled with the turtle and Mt. Hôrai (C: Peng'lai), the legendary island of immortality. Cranes also appear in certain contexts as a national symbol of Japan.[1]
In imperial China, a court official's chest badge (buzi) depicting a crane was indicative of the First Court Rank (the highest rank).[2]
Cranes were also a special object for sport hunting, and an elite delicacy. When a shogun or daimyô engaging in falconry caught cranes, he frequently shared the crane with his retainers, or gave it as a gift. Shoguns annually gave gifts of cranes to the Imperial Court early in the new year, in following with a precedent set by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who caught several cranes on New Year's Day in 1612 and spontaneously decided to give them as gifts to Emperor Go-Mizunoo and Retired Emperor Go-Yôzei.[3] Daimyô who caught cranes often gave them as gifts to the shogun, and received cranes in return.[4]
References
- ↑ For example, in the logo of Japan Airlines (JAL).
- ↑ Ray Huang, 1587: A Year of No Significance, Yale University Press (1981), 53-54.
- ↑ Cecilia Segawa Seigle, “Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and the Formation of Edo Castle Rituals of Giving,” in Martha Chaiklin (ed.), Mediated by Gifts: Politics and Society in Japan 1350-1850, Brill (2017), 116.
- ↑ Asô Shinichi 麻生伸一, "Kinsei chûkôki no zôyo girei ni miru Ryûkyû to Nihon" 「近世中後期の贈与儀礼にみる琉球と日本」、Nihonshi kenkyû 日本史研究 578 (2010/10), 23-24.
