38 THE BAMBOO GARDEN CHAP, IV 
hang longer on the tree than any other fruit, is in like 
manner of auspicious omen; the dried Persimmon, which 
long preserves its taste, represents the unchanged sweetness 
of conjugal love and fidelity; the Bracken is held to be slow 
in fading; the Oak leaf does not fall off the tree until the 
young leaf is ready to take its place, just as a father is 
happy who does not die until his son is fit to succeed him ; 
while the seaweed, Kompu or Kobu, composes the last two 
syllables of yorokobu, “to be happy.” The rope of straw 
represents the rope which the gods, after they had lured out 
the sun-goddess, according to the myth which in the Shinto 
religion springs from the first eclipse of the sun, hung 
outside the stone cave of heaven in order to prevent her 
from returning into it. These various emblems are hung 
up to propitiate the Year-God, praying him to preserve the 
house from evil during the ensuing twelve months. They 
are taken down on the seventh day of the first month, and 
on the fourteenth day they are burnt in honour of Sai no 
Kami, the god of roads and protector of travellers. The 
origin of this custom is lost in antiquity. It is alluded to in 
the collection of poems called the “ Hundred Heads,” compiled 
by the Emperor Horikawa at the end of the eleventh century, 
where, in the poem by one of the nobles of the court named 
Akisuyé, is found the following passage: “When the Fir 
trees are placed at the doors we know that the night will 
break into the morning of the new year.” Such customs 
do not grow in a day; so it is fair to suppose that this one 
was already of respectable age 800 years ago. 
