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80115-0032 - Japanese New Year Celebrations

Kobe, 1906
New Year Celebrations 8

Artist	Teijiro Takagi
Publisher	Teijiro Takagi
Medium	Collotype Print
Period	Meiji
Location	Kobe
Image No.	80115-0032
Purchase	Digital File
Author	Kjeld Duits

Kadomatsu (door pine) is a decoration for Japanese New Year. They are displayed next to the entrance during the first week of the year.

The pine represents continuity, the bamboo straightness and sincerity. Kadomatsu can be seen all over Japan, except near Ikuta Jinja in Kobe. Reportedly because the kami of the shrine showed his dislike of kadomatsu by washing the ones near the shrine away during a flood in the eighth century.

This image is part of The New Year in Japan, a book published by Kobe-based photographer Kozaburo Tamamura in 1906. Original text¹:

It is barely daylight, and already the people are emerging from their homes, to inhale the fresh air of a New Year (and winter, in Japan, is but a kind of cold summer, so far as blue skies is concerned), and to pay complimentary visits (a veritable boredom to many level-minded people) to folk they greet thus but once a year! Please observe the bamboo decorations in front of each dwelling.

The location appears to be Fukuhara, Kobe’s famed prostitution quarter.

See all New Year images on Old Photos of Japan.

Notes

¹ Tamamura, Kozaburo (1906). The New Year in Japan. Tamamura Shashinkan.

Published January 1, 2009
Updated December 29, 2022 9:33 AM

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Old Photos of Japan aims to be your personal museum for Japan's visual heritage and to bring the experiences of everyday life in old Japan to you.

To enhance our understanding of Japanese culture and society I track down, acquire, archive, and research images of everyday life, and give them context.

I share what I have found for free on this site, without ads or selling your data.

Your support helps me to continue doing so, and ensures that this exceptional visual heritage will not be lost and forgotten.

Thank you,
Kjeld Duits

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Reference for Citations

Duits, Kjeld (December 29, 2022). Kobe, 1906: New Year Celebrations 8, OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN. Retrieved on November 12, 2026 (GMT) from https://www.oldphotosjapan.com/photos/675/new-year-celebrations-8

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Kobe, 1906New Year Celebrations 8