As the most important festival on the Japanese calendar, New Year is an occasion to make wishes and resolutions, and to wish others happiness in the coming year. Most people also like to visit a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple, and to gather together with family and friends. On Jan. 2, crowds also visit the Imperial Palace to see the Emperor offer his annual New Year's greetings.
In the Edo Period (1603-1867), samurai lords visited Edo Castle on Jan. 1 to celebrate the New Year with the shogun. Participating in this official reception, which began at 7 a.m., was a privilege only extended to the kinsmen of the shogunal Tokugawa family and hereditary vassals called fudai.
The 1830s woodcut print by Hasegawa Settan conveys the pride and anticipation of elite daimyo and their retinues as they hurried early in the morning to the Otemon Gate, the front entrance to the castle's main quarter. The processions, comprising porters, forerunners, pikemen, mounted or unmounted swordsmen and the daimyo in his palanquin, exultantly march on, the sound of their crunching footsteps made almost audible by Settan's masterly hand.
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