OBSERVANCES AND PASTIMES
finally found themselves subjects of a system of conventionalities, pleasant, graceful, and refined, but inflexible. Nowhere else can be seen grooves of routine beaten so deeply by the tread of centuries; nowhere else does the light of old times, the veteris vestigia flammœ, shine so steadily on the paths of usage. These customs may be examined one by one, and taken thus independently, they present generally very pretty and often very quaint studies. But to appreciate their relation to the life of the nation, one must follow the nation in its observance of them from New Year's day to New Year's eve.
According to the calendar of old Japan, the commencement of the year varied from what Western folks call the 16th of January to the 19th of February, but, on the average, it may be said to have fallen a full month later than the day fixed by the Gregorian method of reckoning. It was thus associated with an idea of spring foreign to the corresponding season in Europe and America. In fact, the first fortnight of the first month was called "spring-advent" (ris-shun) ; the second fortnight, the "rains" (u-sui). That old idea still clings to the time, even under the altered conditions of the new calendar, and people still persuade themselves that spring has dawned when the first January sun rises, though neither the plum nor the snow-parting plant (yuki-wari-so)—each a harbinger of spring in Japan—is within a month
33
Vol. VI.—3
