抄録
"Notes on Confucian Household Festivities and Events," written by the scholar Shunsui Rai in ca. 1808, is an important historical document for studying Confucian household festivities conducted during the latter part of the Edo era. These notes are in three parts: house cleaning at the end of the year and ceremonies for the New Year; the schedule for each month; and the preparation and conduct of Confucian household festivities. These festivities celebrated the conjunction festival, full moon festival, auspicious day festivals (1/7, 3/3, 5/5, 7/7, and 9/9), anniversaries of ancestors' deaths, and seasonal festivals (chosai and jisai). More than 40 festivities in total were held in each year. Sake and relishes were conventionally prepared as a votive offering for the conjunction festival, tea and sweets for the full moon festival, rice porridge with seven spring herbs, side dishes and sake for January 7th, lozenge rice cakes for March 3rd, rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves for May 5th, and melon for July 7th. Seventeen ancestors' death anniversaries were celebrated going back to the great-grandparents and other relatives. Seasonal festivities were held in February and August, jisai in particular being a grand banquet to which many relatives and close acquaintances were invited. New Year's breakfast consisted of rice cakes boiled with fish and vegetables, and an event for cutting New Year's rice cakes is also mentioned in the notes. Entries on the death anniversaries of successive lords of the Hiroshima feudal clan indicate the feudalistic ideas of the Edo era.
