The Open Court, Vol. 18

Excerpt from The Open Court, Vol. 18: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Science of Religion, the Religion of Science, and the Extension of the Religions Parliament Idea; January, 1904 HE japanese are a nature-loving people and frequently give practical expression to their feelings by taking a holiday simply for żower-viewing. At the proper season, the entire nation, so to speak, takes a day off and turns out on a big picnic, to see the plum blossoms, or the cherry blossoms, or the maples, or the crysanthemums. No utilitarian Views of the value of time or miserly conceptions of the expense of such outings prevail for a moment; for the Japanese are worshippers of beauty rather than of the almighty dollar. A few pennies on such occasions bring many pleasures, and business interests are sacrificed at the shrine of beauty. And, as one or more żowers are blooming every month, there is almost a continuous round of such picnics during the year. Having lived in Japan for some time, it is my purpose, therefore, to tell my American countrymen something of the żower or żowers popular each month, with some folk-lore, poems, or other descrip tion thereof and have it illustrated by pictures. But first we must call attention to the fact, that the Japanese word kana includes, not only a żower or blossom according to our conceptions, but also twigs, leaves, grasses, that the pine, the maple, and even the snow may come in this category. We are confronted at the very outset with a Chronological diffi culty in presenting this subject to Western readers. For the pro gramme of Japanese żoral festivals was originally arranged on the basis of the old lunar calendar, so long in vogue in Japan. By that calendar the New Year came in about the net of January to the 18th of February; so that it was from three to seven weeks behind the Occidental solar calendar. For instance, the following is a żoral programme according to the old style. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.