Tales of Old Japan - Maybe You Like It

it of dried fish or seaweed which accompanies presents, one of each,
and seven rice straws—these seven articles must be prepared. 134
The child is placed facing the point of the compass which is auspicious
for that year, and the sponsor, if the child be a boy, takes the scissors and
gives three snips at the hair on the left temple, three on the right, and
three in the centre. He then takes the piece of cotton wool and spreads it
over the child's head, from the forehead, so as to make it hang down behind
his neck, and he places the bit of dried fish or seaweed and the seven
straws at the bottom of the piece of cotton wool, attaching them to the
wool, and ties them in two loops, like a man's hair, with a piece of paper
string; he then makes a woman's knot with two pieces of string. The ceremony
of drinking wine is the same as that gone through at the weaning.
If the child is a girl, a lady acts as sponsor; the hair-cutting is begun
from the right temple instead of from the left. There is no difference in
the rest of the ceremony.
On the fifth day of the eleventh month of the child's fourth year he is
invested with the hakama, or loose trousers worn by the Samurai. On
this occasion again a sponsor is called in. The child receives from the
sponsor a dress of ceremony, on which are embroidered storks and tortoises
(emblems of longevity—the stork is said to live a thousand years,
the tortoise ten thousand), fir-trees (which, being evergreen, and not
changing their colour, are emblematic of an unchangingly virtuous
heart), and bamboos (emblematic of an upright and straight mind). The
child is placed upright on a chequer-board, facing the auspicious point of
the compass, and invested with the dress of ceremony. It also receives a
sham sword and dirk. The usual ceremony of drinking wine is observed.
NOTE.—In order to understand the following ceremony, it is necessary
to recollect that the child at three years of age is allowed to grow its
hair in three patches. By degrees the hair is allowed to grow, the crown
alone being shaved, and a forelock left. At ten or eleven years of age the
boy's head is dressed like a man's, with the exception of this forelock.
The ceremony of cutting off the forelock used in old days to include
the ceremony of putting on the noble's cap; but as this has gone out of
fashion, there is no need to treat of it.
Any time after the youth has reached the age of fifteen, according to
the cleverness and ability which he shows, a lucky day is chosen for this
most important ceremony, after which the boy takes his place amongst
full-grown men. A person of virtuous character is chosen as sponsor or
"cap-father." Although the man's real name (that name which is only
134.For a few days previous to the ceremony the child's head is not shaved.
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