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Japanese flags bearing on a white ground the great crimson disk which is the emblem of the Land of the Rising Sun flutter above the gateways; and the same national emblem glows upon countless paper lanterns strung in rows along the eaves or across the streets and temple avenues. So that all the ways are lined with green, and full of bright colour. The kadomatsu is more than its name implies.
The same art of painting leaves, etc., with single strokes of the brush is still common in Japan even among the poorest class of decorators. 2 There is a Buddhist saying about the kadomatsu: Kadomatsu Meido no tabi no Ichi-ri-zuka.
The plum-tree of whose emblematic meaning I said something in a former paper about Japanese gardens is not invariably used, however; sometimes sakaki, the sacred plant of Shinto, is substituted for it; and sometimes only pine and bamboo form the kadomatsu.
The meaning is that each kadomatsu is a milestone on the journey to the Meido; or, in other words, that each New Year's festival signal only the completion of another stage of the ceaseless journey to death. 3 The difference between the shimenawa and shimekazari is that the latter is a strictly decorative straw rope, to which many curious emblems are attached.
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