Dear Customers & Freinds;

Hello from Japan! This is Antique Ichiroya News Letter.No.96th.
Here in Japan,hot summer is about to finish,but during burning summer, I always remember my childhood.
When I was child,I had short-pants and t-shirt,eat wetermelon, or ice cream(if I am lucky!).Instead of AC,we have a fan and room has smell of Katoir senkou which is mosquito incense because windows are always widely opened and used to take a nap hearing loud cicada.
There is a wine bell rining nicely by the balcony and around the fence at balcony,there are beautiful morning glory entwined with vines.
Near the windows,gold fish I got from Omatsuri,summer fesival swiming peacefully in the glass container which made me feel cool,too.
Now,thinking about my childhood,it is such a sweet memory having typical summer scene. How about now?
Every room is controlled by A/C to live comfortably thr. the year,also food are raised in a greenhouses, we can pretty much eat anything all the time.
Today, I would like to talk about traditional summer and related subjects.

In the middle of August,we all go to Ohaka-mairi,visit their graves which is one of the most important thing I do in the summer.
Japan still maintains the culture and tradition of respecting and worshipping the deceased and we have long believed that the spirit of the deceased remains eternally on earth and guard their descendants.
During the week of Obon,the spirits of the dead return to their homes on earth. Every family place lanterns by the gates of their houses to guide the spirits home,also we burn candles in paper lanterns in temples and cemeteries. At the end of the week,we light the lanterns and guide the ancestors back to the other world.

Only obon and Osyougatsu,new year,our family and relatives gather together, enjoy each other's company while honoring the spirits.It is hard to keep in touch and get together living in this busy world,so even only 2 times,this is great occasions for us to see each other and I really enjoy seeing specially my small newphew and niece...
Amazingly,they already know how to pray ,thank to ancesters and I was so touched when he was saying 'please watch over our family and thank you for all'.Whenever we line up going to grave,I always hope that we can visit here together every year,same people,same faces,only differences are heights of my neice and nephew.I think I am fortunate to have wonderful family who appreciates and thanks to ancesters who is willing to come often because there are so many graves which are covered with dust,rotten flowers,no visiters for decades...

There are different obons in the regions and Toro-nagashi abd Gozan no Okuribi are another famous obon scenes.
Toro-nagashi is a way to supposedly guide the spirits of the departed back to the other and Gozan no Okuribi, more commonly known as Daimonji,is one of the iconic festivals of Kyoto.Five giant bonfires on the mountains guide the ancestral spirits back to where they came from,too.
Here are two links of floating paper lantersn and fires.

world.http://www.michaeldougan.com/blog/C640274126/E1498710099/index.html

http://www.kbs-kyoto.co.jp/okuribi/

I am not sure how common in other countries to visit family graves,but
there are spirits even bodies are gone,so it is very important to visit graves your family sleep occasionally and I hope my newsletter gives you a motivation to do that soon if you have not visited for a while!
Tomorrow,we will list interesting dolls,and charming kimonos,so please browse our both sites!

Thank you for taking your valuable time to read my 96th
newsletters and we will get back to you soon!

Have a wonderful day!

Hisami Sato

Japanese antique Ichiroya
http://www.antiqueichiroya.com
e-mail: info@ichiroya.com
address: Asia-shoji Bldg.301
Wakamatsu cho
Tondabayashi city
Osaka 584-0025 JAPAN
TEL&FAX ****( international number ) - 81-721-23-544