Here's a crazy New Year's fact. There used to be a ceremony (which came from China), called Aouma (alternately Aouma no Sechie) or White Horses. On the first day of the seventh month (of the lunar calendar), the emperor would look at a horse, and not just any horse -- it had to be a white horse. After that, he and the court (or possibly just the lords, not sure) would all go to eat.
What?! When?
It all began in the 700s AD (that's during the Nara period). The first known date that it was celebrated was in 775 AD. The emperor at the time was Kōnin (he was born in 702 and died in 782, but he was emperor from 770 to 781). That's pronounced koh-neen, by the way, in case you were tempted to say Conan, in your head. I was. (Kind of did, actually). It did go into decline, this ceremony, during the country's medieval times.
If you're looking for a literary reference of it, look in the Tale of Lady Ochikubo (Ochikubo Monogatari). Apparently, it's one of the more famous monogatari.
Kind of Horse
For a time the ceremony used a some kind of gray horse (I've seen the specific shade described as blue gray and as steel gray) -- one concept theorizes they were roans or were light grey -- but that rule switched out to say white horses were sufficient in the 900s. Reasons the author found for this change in policy range from:
-- horses of the aforementioned grey color were a bit hard to come by.
-- white represents purity in Shinto.
-- white horses were considered divine in Japan. (Just me saying this, this one is just a rewording of the last one?)
Kanji and the Name
While were on blue versus white, let's talk about the word aouma itself. Those who've spent time looking at Japanese language resources might be thinking that perhaps the word is written with the character for blue (青) and horse (馬). You're partly right. I think. The way I understand it, Aouma doesn't actually use the character for blue, but white (白).
However. It was initially written with the character for blue -- but in the Heian period (and possibly back to sometime before), people used the character for white. Though sometimes someone would spell it with the character for blue.
But wait, there's more! You may also see aouma translated into English as "Green Horses". I've only seen this in one place, but I thought it'd be good to let you all know.
Finally, for the term Aouma no Sechie, use these characters in the proscribed order: 白馬節会. Maybe the "no" is implied in the characters... I've noticed that elsewhere, can't say where exactly, but I have. Hm...
Oh, and I've also come across a translation that says Aouma no Sechie is the festival of the new horses.
Alternate Definitions
But, let's not forget about that brooding presence that haunts all writers of research papers and amateur bloggers as well as anyone generally interested in anything about the past -- historical discordance. For verily, in the case of Aouma, it has struck again!
An alternate description of the horse viewing is as thus: Not just one, but twenty-one horses were taken from the, uh, Left and Right Imperial Stables. (I'll have to look that one up). They were put in the Imperial Audience Chamber, where the emperor looked at them.
Reason for the Ceremony
It's possible the idea came out of the yin-yang world view. That is, take a yang animal (a horse) that was a yang color (blue -- but in this case not exactly), in order to shoo away malevolent spirits. And to increase the yang -- whose or what's yang I dunno for sure. Probably at least the emperor's. Yang is manly energy, so... eh, I dunno.
Moving away from the specifically Taoist explanation, another, somewhat similar, definition is that Aouma was supposed to make all the bad forces go away that were going to happen to the year -- though I've also seen it that it was to keep from getting sick. I sense the presence of the Potato Potahto spirit here. But, then again I could be wrong.
Aouma Today
Y'know what else? Aouma still exists. Not as a royal court ceremony, but at different shines, such as at Osaka's Sumiyoshi Taisha. It's a festival, y'know?
References
Et voilà, the places I used for writing the above:
"Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts"; Haruo Shirane; 2013
"Armed Martial Arts of Japan: Swordsmanship and Archery"; G. Cameron Hurst III; 1998
"The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 2 Heian Japan"; John Whitney Hall; 1999
"The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature"; Earl Miner, Hiroko Odagiri, Robert E. Morrell; 1988
"The Clear Mirror: A Chronicle of the Japanese Court During the Kamakura Period (1185-1333)"; Stanford University Press; 1998
"The Tale of the Lady Ochikubo"; Wilfred Whitehouse, Eizo Yanagisawa; 2006
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