fragrant scents from the kitchen are to the nostrils at a later stage of the proceedings. And how they scour and scrub and brush! A New England housekeeper at her house-cleaning orgies in the spring and autumn in Massachusetts can hardly be so thorough. For, to begin with, Japanese houses are so bare of adornments—lacking furniture, carpets, curtains, antimacassars, lamp mats, and what-nots—that the bed-rock business of cleaning must receive more attention even than in the mansion in Vermont. Then, when everything has been pounded or dusted or washed and set in the sun, and when, from soft-toned walls to new pale-hued mats (the fleas in the straw padding of the latter, however, I have reason to believe, after a refreshing beating only change quarters and hibernate in their soft nest to bide their time till spring), when inside and out all is fleckless and spotless—unless it be for glints of dull gilding on the sliding panels of the doors,—then the decorating begins.[1]
And so shall you find that on New Year’s Eve all is ready for the great day. Around the pillars of the gateway a straw rope (shimenawa) will gracefully sway—god-evoking gohei on it. Besides the Pine tree, there already, more cut Pine branches will be put, to bring
- ↑ At the Koto Hajime presents of money are given the servants—who are invariably in the beautiful patriarchal way of Japan an integral part of the family.
