Tanabata Folklore - Shinobu Orikuchi's Perspective
Tonight, July 7th, is 七夕(Tanabata), the Star Festival in Japan. Here, it’s customary to write wishes on slender strips of colored paper called 短冊(tanzaku) and hang them on bamboo branches. As you can see in the photo below, supermarkets across Japan set up Tanabata displays as early as June, allowing anyone to freely write a wish and decorate the bamboo with their own tanzaku. In this post, I’d like to explore the folklore of Tanabata, drawing on the work of the renowned scholar Shinobu Orikuchi.
The True Face of Tanabata
— Japan’s Star Festival Through the Lens of Shinobu Orikuchi
This post summarizes and selectively quotes the folklorist 折口信夫 Shinobu Orikuchi (1887‑1953) and his 1931 essay “Tanabata and the Bon Festival,” rendered into modern English for today’s readers.
1. Wasn’t Tanabata on the Night of July 7th?
When we picture Tanabata we imagine writing wishes on colorful slips, hanging them on bamboo the evening of July 7th. Orikuchi, however, notes that the original festival ran from the night of July 6th straight through to dawn on the 7th. Old‑calendar rites in Nagano and in Okinawa still begin on the 6th, preserving what he calls the “classical form.”
2. Tanabata Isn’t a “Hanging Shelf” at All
The word 七夕(Tanabata) is an ateji for 棚機 (tanabata). Far from a dainty hanging shelf, it once meant a high‑floor platform or stage that juts out from ground or floor—a sacred place to welcome a god.
棚は、天井からなりと、床上になりと、自由に、たななるものは、作る事が出来た
“Whether it hangs from the ceiling or rises from the floor, anything that sets a space apart can be called a tana.” (Orikuchi)
On this platform a young maiden wove cloth for the visiting deity. That maiden, the Tanabatatsume, is the prototype that folk belief later merged with the Chinese Weaver Star myth, giving us today’s “Orihime.”
3. Tanabata + Bon = One Continuous Cycle
Orikuchi stresses that 七夕 Tanabata and お盆 Obon were originally two halves of a single midsummer cycle. The youthful “guest god” welcomed at Tanabata departs by dawn, then ancestors arrive for Bon.
夏秋の交叉祭りは、存外早く、固有・外来種が融合を遂げた。
“Summer–autumn crossover rites fused native and imported elements with surprising speed.” (Orikuchi)
The bamboo decorations still double as a purification rite. Tossing paper dolls or streamers into a river was, in Orikuchi’s reading, a way to “top up” the cloth that the Tanabatatsume alone could not finish in time.
4. Ikimitama and the Forgotten “Bon Furnace”
Between Tanabata and Bon lurked another ceremony: the 生き御霊 Ikimitama Festival, “Living Souls Day.” Just as New Year’s brings “Happy New Year,” villagers once offered a midsummer “Happy Bon” to elders, complete with a gift of salted mackerel.
Meanwhile village girls secluded themselves beside a temporary garden hearth called a bongama. Fasting and tending the fire, they enacted a pre‑coming‑of‑age retreat, mirroring the boys’ New‑Year camps in snow huts or bird blinds.
5. Yabu‑iri, Enma Pilgrimages, and Mid‑Year Resets
New Year and Bon were not mere calendars; they were reset buttons for social contracts. Servants got leave to visit home (藪入り yabu‑iri), while bosses renewed hires (出替り dekawari). All of it hinged on the Great Purification (大祓 Oharae), the belief that one could shake off the past and start fresh twice a year.
6. Before You Write Your Wish…
Tanabata originally starts at nightfall on July 6th.
The “shelf” is a jutting stage where a maiden wove brand‑new cloth for a watery deity.
Tanabata and Obon form a single cycle, greeting guest gods and ancestral spirits back‑to‑back.
Living‑soul blessings, bongama retreats, and servant homecomings layered together to create the Tanabata we know today.
So next time you tie a wish to bamboo, imagine that lone girl on a high moonlit platform, weaving brilliance for a visiting god. It may lend your wish a bit of her ancient sparkle.
And here’s a clip of “Tanabata-sama,” a traditional children’s song, which I played on piano and recorder. I hope it helps set the mood for your own Tanabata celebration. Wishing you a magical Star Festival!
