Not everyone has a jotoshiki ceremony when they build their house. However, I’m all for ritual and for blending Japanese tradition with my own creative take. I’ll grasp at any excuse to honor the gods and have a party, especially when it is personally significant and memorable. But this exceeded my expectations. In fact, it was a surprise to just about everyone.
Sasaki-san had shared some photos on Facebook of his preparations for the ceremony – he cut and painted a mysterious square pole for the event. So I knew we’d have more than the minimal “decorated fan” that I had seen in other people’s descriptions of their jotoshiki.
Not only did we have the pole, decorated with paint, inscribed with our name, and festooned with banners and a fancy fan, but we also had a huge bow and arrow put together with with hand-corded rope and bamboo cut from our own land. Tod joked that this was protection from the monkeys that roam the area. To be honest, I am not sure what the symbolism of the bow and arrow is, but it was beautifully impressive.
When guests started to arrive, friends we had invited and also members of the kumiai, many of them presented sake. Then Matahei-san from Sushiya delivered a case of bottled beer from the kumiai. Before the ceremony started, the little table had been filled completely. I believe we received 19 bottles of sake, three bottles of wine, a bottle of champagne, 20 bottles of beer, and bless the people who brought vegetables, rice and cookies.
I had prepared a variety of snacks, date-nut bread from Mom’s recipe, hot chocolate, and soup for our guests and was trying to hostess people into enjoying treats when I was called over to climb the roof. Megumi cheerfully took over soup duty so that I could go do my thing. [I later heard that the kumi neighbors liked my pumpkin ginger soup so much that had had seconds. I felt a huge sense of relief that the neighbors joined us after my earlier misstep and that they liked my cooking. Whew!)]
And up we climbed. The setting sun peeked out just as we reached the summit. What a glorious view.
Once safely in the rafters on a special platform, we made an offering on the main beam of rice, salt and sake; made our obeisance to the gods who preside over housebuilding; and then we got to throw presents down to the crowd!
Normally for a jotoshiki, new homeowners toss dry mochi from the roof, but I am not a great fan of mochi. So I commissioned Miako Hatanaka from Cafe So to bake mini muffins with rice flour and blueberries. As a surprise her husband, Toru, designed and printed custom labels for the packaging. I couldn’t have imagined a better way to keep the tradition but make it ours.
I prepared small red bags containing three 5 yen coins and our contact details. That’s a big pun all around. Our address is spelled out in coins, but also go-en 五円 is 5 yen, and with a different kanji, go-en ご縁 is relationship. Making good relations.
The white bags held four colored tiles – pink, blue, black and yellow to symbolise fire, water, earth, & air – and an explanation of what to do to capture their magic: plant them where you want happiness to grow. I put ours under the foundations of the house last month. One color in each corner.
There is a secret message here but I am pretty sure that the only person who understands it is me. It is rather abstruse. The bilingual title on the paper is Color Magic 喜びが来ます (Color Magic Yorokobi ga Kimasu) and means “Color magic brings happiness.” This encodes CMYK, the colors of the tiles. It’s a stretch, but I thought it was clever.
Back down on the ground there were some speeches, of course. Mine began with a long “Wow!” and rambled in English and Japanese for a minute or two. Tod said a few gracious words in Japanese, then Sasaki-san and Teramoto thanked everyone. Fujii-san gave the toast and we all kampai’d with some more of the sake from the bottle we’d cracked open at 8 am.
And I thought that would be all but I was wrong. While we were preparing the toast, someone had gone up to the roof and removed the decorated post. There was another ceremony – earth pounding.
Five of us grasped the colored banners while Sasaki-san, his brother and one of the other carpenters held the bottom of the post steady and the elder Sasaki-san sang a chant with the carpenters responding in a refrain. The post rotated as we gently pulled the banners in turn. Then the carpenters lifted the post and forcefully pounded it down over and over until there was a deep indentation in the ground.
This is old, old magic. Nobody in attendance remembered ever seeing this, even from their most distant childhoods. I feel deeply grateful to have this nearly forgotten rite performed at 555.
And finally, to my delight and surprise, 胴上げ dou-age. Celebratory tossing! (Do we have a word for this in English?) I was tossed into the air and caught by the crowd. Up and down, up and down. It felt so good to fly to weightlessness and it seemed like an eternity, but it was only a few seconds. Then Tod had a turn, then Sasaki-san.
And at last it was over. I handed around the gift envelopes to all the workers to thank them for their labour and then guests and workers alike left for home.
It was a long day, with many surprises, delights, and blissful moments. An auspicious milestone safely completed and joyfully marked. I am full of gratitude to everyone who helped us get this far – it’s a very long list!
