[sorafoto | 空フォト]
traditional Japanese wedding (harajuku, tokyo)
Posted by timothy sullivan (Tokyo, Japan) on 21 January 2009 in Lifestyle & Culture.
Go to Meiji Shrine pretty much any Sunday and you'll see something quite similar to this image: a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony. They're certainly nice to look at, but when you start delving beneath the surface, some interesting trivia facts appear:
- Traditionally, the bride wears a triangular band on her head--the tsunokakushi, or horn cover--to hide the horns of jealousy, which supposedly all women posses; some people say this is a sign of the bride's subservience to the groom.
- Each 20-person wedding ceremony at Meiji Jingu goes for JPY840,000 (US$9,360). (Source: the Shrine's website)
- Regardless of religious rituals, most Japanese also include a cultural sake-sharing tradition at the wedding, popularly called san-san-kudo -- san means "three," ku means "nine", and do means "times". This ritual dates back to a time when sharing sake created a formal bond. Using three flat sake cups stacked atop one another, the bride and groom take three sips each from the cups. Then their parents also take sips (for a total of nine sips), cementing the bond between the families. The first sip by bride and groom is deemed to officially unite the two as one.
- As with many other cultures, the main gift is money; in the wrapping culture of Japan, this money is tucked in a special, ornately-decorated envelopes with gold and silver strings. It is considered unlucky to give the couple even-money amounts (i.e., two bills of the same denomination) that might be split evenly between the pair (a sign that they may do major things secretly/independently of one another).
- Gift registry, however, has not yet come to Japan. (I keep thinking that the person who is savvy with databases and Japanese business would make millions here.)
- As many Japanese opt for two wedding styles--Western and Japanese--at the wedding ceremony, the bride's wedding gown is often a traditional wedding kimono called an uchikake.
- Whereas the kimonos that married women wear have short sleeves, unwed women wear long-sleeved kimonos. (An exception to this, I believe, are homongi--which may be worn by either married or unmarried women.)
- "Good-looking Western men" who can speak a little bit of Japanese can make quite decent money by "marrying" people. (Though in recent years, as many Japanese have started realizing that these foreigners aren't legitimate priests, many recruitment agencies require that the foreign guy at least be Christian. One of my friends was rejected for one of these positions, actually, because he said he wasn't baptized.)
- Finally: as per Buddhist tradition, "good luck" (taian, 大安) dates are usually decided as for when weddings are held (the days marked in red on this 2009 calendar); however, as these dates are considered particularly good, temples and shrines usually increase the prices of the ceremonies. Many temples and shrines also offer significant discounts on "bad luck" days (butsumetsu, 仏滅).
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