Japanese with anime voice: episode90
Hello, I’m Sachi.
It will soon be Tanabata. Do you know the seasonal event called Tanabata? The custom of Tanabata is mainly found in Asian countries. It was introduced to Japan in the Nara period (710-794). It is known as the day when Orihime and Hikoboshi can cross the Milky Way to meet only once a year, and was adopted as a court event in the Heian period (794-1185).
Yes, Tanabata is the legend of Orihime and Hikoboshi. The legend is that Orihime, a weaver of beautiful cloth, and Hikoboshi, an industrious young cowherd, fell in love and got married. But they later became lazy in their work and incurred the wrath of the gods, and the two were separated on both banks of the Milky Way. But they were allowed to meet only once a year, on July 7. That day became Orihime and Hikoboshi’s reunion day, and they began to celebrate it as Tanabata.
The custom of Tanabata in Japan is to write wishes on tanzaku, a strip of paper. Tanzaku is a long, thin piece of paper on which people write their wishes and tie them to objects. You write your wishes on it and hang it on a bamboo leaf. The basic colors for tanzaku are blue, red, yellow, white, and black, and each color has its own meaning.
Blue is a color that symbolizes nature and growth. It is meant to wish for the prosperity and growth of life, and to wish for good health and academic achievement.
Red is the color of passion and love. It is meant to strengthen bonds with family and lovers. It is used to wish for family happiness, the fulfillment of love, and the happiness of friends and family.
Yellow symbolizes trust and friendship. It is meant to improve relationships and social trust, and we wish to improve friendships and strengthen trust.
White is the color of purity and justice. It means to achieve one’s goals with a pure heart and to do the right thing, and one hopes to pass exams, succeed in one’s work, and do the right thing.
Black and purple symbolize wisdom and learning. They are also associated with deepening knowledge and academic success, and are used to wish for academic success, improvement in knowledge, and the bestowal of wisdom.
These seem to be the meanings behind the five colors of the strips of paper. In fact, however, we do not pay much attention to these meanings in Japan. On the contrary, we make tanzaku in pink, orange, and brown, and we write our wishes freely without being restricted by the color of the tanzaku. Actually, I didn’t know that the colors of tanzaku had such meanings. I only found out about it when I looked it up to talk about the Tanabata Festival this time.
In Japan, the detailed story of Orihime and Hikoboshi is not well known. It is only known that Orihime and Hikoboshi meet once a year in the Milky Way. Tanabata is an event where people write their wishes on strips of paper and tie them to bamboo leaves. Moreover, I used to think that the Milky Way could only be seen on July 7. That’s not true. The Milky Way is always there. It’s just that we can’t see it clearly. At this point, you can see how little I understand about Tanabata and the Milky Way.
Speaking of memories of Tanabata, when I was in high school, my classmates and I talked about having a Tanabata festival. We decided that if we were going to do it, we were going to make it a real Tanabata event, so we even prepared bamboo leaves. I was to prepare the bamboo leaves. I asked a friend of mine who lives in the mountains to get me some bamboo. And I carried them to the high school.
I went to high school, which was a 25-minute train ride and a 40-minute bike ride away. Incidentally, my parents drove me from my parents’ house to the nearest train station. Well, it is far, isn’t it? So I probably asked my father to carry the bamboo to the school with a light truck. Probably. Actually, I don’t remember how I carried it. Anyway, I remember one time in my three years of high school when we prepared a bamboo pole and held the Tanabata festival together. We tied the bamboo to the balcony and made strips of paper and wrote our wishes on them. After the Tanabata festival was over, we talked about what to do with the bamboo. Before an event, people get excited and excited, don’t they? It sounds like a lot of fun. But after the event is over, they become burnt out and don’t care about anything else. Well, high school girls are like that. The fire ignites and burns out in an instant. And then, nothing was decided on what to do with the bamboo, but as I recall, it was blown away somewhere by a typhoon that came afterwards. High school girls really are a handful.
