The Festival of Seven Herbs or ''Nanakusa no sekku'' ( ja, ) is the long-standing Japanese custom of eating seven-herb rice porridge (七草粥, ''nanakusa-gayu'', lit. "7 Herbs Rice-Congee") on January 7 (''

Jinjitsu ''Jinjitsu'' (, "Human Day") is one of the five seasonal festivals ( ''gosekku'') that were integrated into the Japanese Imperial calendar over 1,000 years ago. ''Sekku'' is the term given meaning special day of observance. The festival is now c ...

''); one of the ''

Gosekku The ''Gosekku'' (五節句), also known as ''sekku'' (節句), are the five annual ceremonies that were traditionally held at the Japanese imperial court. The origins were Japanese practices merged with Chinese practices and celebrated in Japan ...

''.

History

The seventh of the first month has been an important Japanese festival since ancient times. Jingchu Suishiji, written in the

Six Dynasties Six Dynasties (; 220–589 or 222–589) is a collective term for six Han-ruled Chinese dynasties that existed from the early 3rd century AD to the late 6th century AD. The Six Dynasties period overlapped with the era of the Sixteen Kingdoms ...

China, recorded the Southern Chinese custom of eating a hot soup that contains seven vegetables to bring longevity and health and ward off evil on the 7th day of the first month of the Chinese calendar. Since there is little green at that time of the year, the young green herbs bring color to the table and eating them suits the spirit of the New Year. The custom was present in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

until the mid-

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

, and is still present in parts of rural Guangdong province.

Seven spring flowers

The ''nanakusa'' (), or more specifically, ''haru no nanakusa'' (), spring's seven flowers (or herbs), are seven

edible An edible item is any item that is safe for humans to eat. "Edible" is differentiated from "eatable" because it does not indicate how an item tastes, only whether it is fit to be eaten. Nonpoisonous items found in nature – such as some mushroo ...

wild herbs of spring. Traditionally, they are: There is considerable variation in the precise ingredients, with common local herbs often being substituted. On the morning of January 7, or the night before, people place the ''nanakusa'', rice scoop, and/or wooden pestle on the

cutting board A cutting board (or chopping board) is a durable board on which to place material for cutting. The kitchen cutting board is commonly used in preparing food; other types exist for cutting raw materials such as leather or plastic. Kitchen cutting bo ...

and, facing the good-luck direction, chant "Before the birds of the continent (China) fly to Japan, let's get nanakusa" while cutting the herbs into pieces. The chant may vary from place to place.

Musical accompaniment

Seven autumn flowers

The spring-time ''nanakusa'' are mirrored by ''aki no nanakusa'' (), meaning autumn's seven flowers. They are listed below: The seven flowers of autumn are bush clover (''hagi''), miscanthus (''obana'', ''

Miscanthus sinensis ''Miscanthus sinensis'', the eulalia or Chinese silver grass, is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, native to eastern Asia throughout most of China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Description It is an herbaceous perennial gras ...

''), kudzu, large pink (''nadeshiko'', ''

Dianthus superbus ''Dianthus superbus'', the fringed pink or large pink, is a species of ''Dianthus'' native to Europe and northern Asia, from northernmost Spain and France north to arctic Norway, and east to Japan; in the south of its range, it occurs at high al ...

''), yellow-flowered valerian (''ominaeshi'', '' Patrinia scabiosifolia''), boneset (''fujibakama'', '' Eupatorium fortunei''), and

Chinese bellflower ''Platycodon grandiflorus'' (from Ancient Greek "wide" and "bell") is a species of herbaceous flowering perennial plant of the family Campanulaceae, and the only member of the genus ''Platycodon''. It is native to East Asia (China, Korea, Japa ...

(''kikyō'', ''Platycodon gradiflorus''). These seven autumn flowers provide visual enjoyment. Their simplicity was very much admired: they are small and dainty yet beautifully colored. They are named as typical autumn flowers in a verse from the Man'yōshū anthology. Unlike their spring counterparts, there is no particular event to do anything about the seven flowers of autumn. The autumn flowers are not intended for picking or eating, but for appreciation, despite each one is believed to have medical efficacy in

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of acti ...

Tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the '' Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short p ...

and

haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or s ...

theming ''hanano'' (, lit. flower field), meaning fields where the autumn wildflowers are in full bloom, have a centuries-old history.

Cautionary note

The Japanese parsley (''

Oenanthe javanica ''Oenanthe javanica'', commonly Java waterdropwort, water celery, water dropwort, Chinese celery, Indian pennywort and Japanese (flat leaf) parsley, is a plant of the genus '' Oenanthe'' originating from East Asia. It has a widespread native dist ...

'') species of the '' Oenanthe'' (water dropworts) genus is closely related to and easily confused with toxic

water hemlock ''Cicuta'', commonly known as water hemlock, is a genus of four species of highly poisonous plants in the family Apiaceae. They are perennial herbaceous plants which grow up to tall, having distinctive small green or white flowers arranged in ...

. Although accidental poisoning is rare, caution should be exercised when dealing with oenanthe species. As ''Oenanthe javanica'' is not found outside of Asia unless specifically cultivated, wild-growing varieties of water dropworts should be considered lethal, even in small amounts.

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20110206045009/http://f3.aaa.livedoor.jp/~taamchai/japan/jp-flower1-2.htm *http://www.transparent.com/japanese/jinjitsu-%E4%BA%BA%E6%97%A5/ *https://web.archive.org/web/20110722115508/http://sokettokun.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2009-01-07 {{Authority control New Year in Japan