TsukuBlog
A Local Perspective on Life in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Watching the First Sunrise of the Year ( HATSU HINODE, 初日の出) From the Seashore or High Up on a Mountain
31 December, 2020
Hatsu Hi no De ( the First Sunrise of the Year) as seen from near the top of Mt. Tsukuba
By Avi Landau
It probably should come as no surprise that here in The Land of the Rising Sun, a land in which a myriad gods and natural phenomena are looked upon and treated with religious reverence, it is considered highly auspicious to greet the first day of the new year by WATCHING THE SUN RISE. The most outstanding of the heavenly bodies, the sun is connected with what is probably Japan`s most famous deity- AMATERASU – the sun goddess and divine ancestor of the Imperial family (according to myth). So it seems only natural that along with listening to the bells at a Buddhist temple, a visit to a Shinto shrine and the acquisition of a new amulet and/or lucky objects ( ENGI MONO) on New Year`s Eve that many Japanese ( and anyone else livlng in Japan) would wake up ( or stay up all night) for watching ( and perhaps saying a prayer to) the first rising sun of the year- which is called HATSU HI NO DE (初日の出) in Japanese.