暑さが納まり、日々涼しくなり、一雨降るごとに寒くなり、それと同時に山は赤く染まりだし、山々は燃えるように紅葉していきます。京都では様々な神社や寺の背景に三方を囲む山が赤く染まり、その風景を一目見ようと全国からの観光客が一番増える時期。春とはまた違う賑わいを見せます。そして冬入りを感じる下旬、農家では漬物等の冬支度が始まり、酒蔵では酒仕込みが始まります。
Now the warmth gives way to cold day by day, and with every rain the chill descends. Shimotsuki is the “month of frost”. As it proceeds the mountains take on an increasingly redder hue until they look afire. The sight of the sacred temples against the fiery mountains at the height of the tourist season has come to be the classic scenic view of Kyoto. At this point the complexion of the celebrations is 180 degrees different from that of the spring.
Later in November the approach of winter feels more acute. Farm families and food makers begin activities associated with the season and the long time indoors, like pickling and brewing sake.
二十三日
23rd
宮中で天皇陛下がその秋に収穫されたお米や、酒等を神様に供え、それを自らも食し、その年の収穫に感謝する行事を新嘗祭といい、日本国家の収穫祭にあたります。
京都では起源がこの新嘗祭の一種と云われる
という行事が１１月中、各地で行われ、社前で新穀のワラを焚いて五穀豊穣に感謝し、家内安全や無病息災、万福招来が祈られます。
The national harvest ceremony, Niiname-sai, involves the emperor (who himself was traditionally regarded as a divinity). He presents rice, sake, and other harvest treasures as offerings to the deities, then ritually partakes of these things, all as an expression of thanksgiving. Across Kyoto, at different locations, people participate in the Hitaki ritual fire ceremony, wherein new crop rice stalks are given up as a burnt offering before each of the city’s many shrines. Gratitude is the theme, and hope is raised for the household and the health of its members, for happiness to come, and for good fortune to rain down on the world.