OBSERVANCES AND PASTIMES
are flown with gossamer silk wound on spindles of ivory or tortoise-shell.
It might be supposed that a visit to the temples to pray for good fortune during the new year would be considered an essential part of the day's duties by the pious section of the population; but although a few aged or particularly superstitious folk may be seen offering up a brief orison to the tutelary deity, they are the exception, not the rule. It is considered more fitting to assemble on some highland and join hands of reverence as the first sun of the year rises above the horizon.
Another feature of New Year's day is a dance performed in the streets by strolling mummers who go about in pairs, manzai saizo, fantastically apparelled. One carries a small hand drum, the other a fan, and they dance from door to door with a degree of vigour not usually displayed by saltatory artists in Japan. Girls of the Eta[1] class also go about wearing immense hats that almost completely hide their faces, and playing samisen. These are the tori-oi or bird-chasers. A Chinese superstition transplanted to Japan says that birds of ill omen hover in the air on New Year's day, and seek an opportunity to enter men's abodes. It is the duty of the Eta damsels to avert this calamity, and little paper parcels of cash handed out to them from house after house as they pass along, striking a few notes on the
- ↑ See Appendix, note 11.
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