浮世から
A Japan blog with a focus on the traditional. Expressing the wa (和) aesthetic in images both historic and modern.
I will do monthly features when I have the time. You can view past features at the link below.
Tanabata-sama (七夕さま), a traditional Tanabata song. Translated:
The bamboo grass rustles,
swaying in the eaves.
The stars sparkle,
gold and silver dust.
I have written upon
the multicoloured tanzaku.
The stars sparkle,
watching from the heavens.
The Tanabata (七夕) story comes from a Chinese folktale.
Orihime (織姫), the daughter of the King of the Heavens Tentei (天帝), worked every day weaving cloth. One day, she met Hikoboshi (彦星), a cow herder who also worked in the heavens. They fell in love and began to spend all of their time together, neglecting their duties entirely. Annoyed with their irresponsible behaviour, Tentei separated the lovers on opposite sides of the celestial river Amanogawa (天の川, the Milky Way), forbidding them to see each other.
However, Tentei was soon moved by his daughter’s grief and decided that Orihime and Hikoboshi would be allowed to be together once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month. When the time came for them to finally be reunited, they found to their dismay that there was no bridge that they could cross. Orihime began to cry, which caught the attention of a flock of magpies, who formed a bridge with their wings so that she could cross and be with Hikoboshi once more.
