JAPAN
(Ori-hime). Connected with this ceremonial—purely Chinese in its origin—was the writing of verselets upon thin sheets of bamboo or fine-grained woods; and these tanzaku, as they are called, ultimately took the form of dainty tablets, decorated with devices in golden and silvern lacquer, and tasselled with silk cords, many of which have found a place in Western collections merely for the sake of their prettiness. To this seventh month, however,—it must not be forgotten that the terminology of the old calendar is here used throughout, and that the so-called seventh month corresponds, approximately, with August,—to this seventh month belongs a celebration which retains much of its old vigour, and can never be entirely neglected so long as ancestral worship is the national cult. It is a fête known as Urabon, or more commonly Bon, intended for the welcome and entertainment of the spirits of the dead which are supposed to visit their loved survivors at this season. The nature of the occasion will at once suggest the profound sentiment connected with its observance. Five days, from the 13th to the 16th, are devoted to the rites, though it is not to be supposed that these are of an elaborate or complicated character. The chief duty is to prepare the shoryo-dana, or spirit-altar. It is a small mat of straw, having at the four corners bamboo pillars, between which is suspended the inevitable "sweet-air rope" (shime-nawa) with pendent decoration of wave-shaped vermicelli, sprays of chest-
74
