7-5-3 Day

Sunday I hadn’t really intended to do anything, since I had so much homework for Monday, but my host sister pointed out that it was probably the last weekend to see kids going for shichi-go-san, or ‘7-5-3 day.’ This is a holiday of sorts in Japan where three- and seven-year-old girls and 5-year-old boys get dressed up in (usually) traditional clothing and go to a Shinto shrine to be blessed by the god there for long life and the like. I have read that it has roots in old samurai class coming of age days, but I’m not entirely certain about that. What I do know is that I went around noon to Heian Jingu in Higashiyama and saw a number of very adorable children, whose parents were only too happy to let me take their pictures. The seven-year-old girls tended to look very excited and proud of their pretty clothes, though I saw a couple minor tantrums in the making, while the 3-year-olds seemed kind of confused and dazed by the number of people, and I saw more than a couple just sit down in the dirt and start playing with the white gravel in the shrine courtyard. The boys seemed to be either very proud of themselves or a little wary of other people, in which case they tended to stay close to their mothers. To the side of the main area of the shrine I saw what appeared to be several different brides having their photos taken, and though I tried to get a good shot they were a bit too far away. On my way back to the bus stop, I got my first sense of fall since being here. The leaves would normally have changed already in the rest of Kyoto, but this year they are a little late, so only the areas at a higher altitude, such as Higashiyama, are sporting much in the way of colour. The smell of warm, dry leaves and the sound of them being blown across the sidewalk behind me made me miss home, and I’m glad that I made it outside on what is probably one of the last of such days left in the year.
-Traditional shoes will not stay on kids’ feet any better than normal shoes. The mother of one boy I saw had clearly realized the futility of putting them on her son at all, who sported brand new sneakers under his traditional-style clothing instead.
-While I made sure to ask parents before I took pictures of their children, large tours were making their way through the shrine that day, and tons of them were snapping away without so much as a ‘Thank You.’
-I say that ‘usually’ they wear traditional clothes, because there were some notable exceptions, among them a pair of sisters dressed in an inspired modification on traditional dress. Both girls had kimono-style dresses on, with the swinging sleeves and robe-like collar, but they were short, with a ruffled crinoline underneath, and decorated with lace at the collar and sleeve-openings. Instead of a stiff obi sash, they had large sashes that tied in large bows covering most of their back, and then, the absolute perfect decision in footwear: cowboy boots. I wish that I had managed to get their picture.
-In truth, not only did the parents grant me permission to photograph their kids, they were very flattered and made sure that their kids looked their best for my pictures.
-Because the sum of 7+5+3=15, families tend to go to the shrine on the weekend closest to the 15th that is convenient. Since all holidays in Japan were dated by the Lunar calender until the early 20th century, many dates remain unfixed.