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a card for  | |||
 | A JOYOUS CHRISTMAS SEASON! KURISUMASU OMEDETOU!  (MP3) Christmas 1945, at Urakami Cathedral, Nagasaki. (See Acknowledgements.) Views: then (1, 2, 3) and now (1, 2, 3). | This Nativity scene was painted for Vatican City's Christmas postage stamp issue of 1964. The artist's name is Ko(u)seki Kimiko. For Japanese lyrics of traditional Christmas carols (in kanji/kana and in transcription), see the fine collection of MIDI music at John Kohji Suguiyama's site. Complete Silent Night heard on Radio Japan: Kiyoshi kono yoru (MP3) (Japanese text of this version) | |
and a nengajou ( ) for the New Year | |||
  | The small (8.5 x 13 cm) print (far left) was made in the 1950s. It shows a street of Gion district, Kyoto, under winter snow. The view is toward Yasaka Pagoda, with traditional New Year motifs: pine decorations (kadomatsu) by the gate, girls in kimono playing badminton with batttledore (hagoita) and shuttlecock (hane), boys flying kites. Plus a snowman (yukidaruma). Compare a present-day view farther to the south (near left). | ||
;  ;  | Welcome the Year
of the Ox in year 3 of the Reiwa era / 2021! The New Year greeting floats above the Sea of Okhotsk in the photo. The ferry is outbound from Wakkanai, Hokkaido on New Year's Eve, 2003. (Click on the image for full view.) In the drawing by M. Horimoto (full name not found yet), the ox waits patiently; probably that is his cart nearby (A Collection of Wood-Block Prints of Japanese Life and Customs. The Kyoto Hangain Company, ca. 1950, illustrating "The Streets in Kyoto"). 
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