Dondo-Yaki

These are typical decorations for New Year's, hanging on doorways on public buildings and houses. This one Bruce is looking at is the front of our apartment building. This is called a shime-nawa and is put at the entrance door to keep misfortune and unclean spirits away.

Dondo-Yaki is an event held after the New Year's festivities are over. Everyone gathers around a community or neighborhood bonfire where New Year's decorations and good luck charms and talismans from last year are burned, to thank them for the good luck they brought in the past year.

Dondo-Yaki took place in a community neighboring Fussa on January 16th. Elder Lunt was acquainted with the Fujii family, who are members of the Fussa Ward, and they invited all of us to join their neighborhood for the bonfire. So we met up with the elders and some Fujii family members and walked to the nearby elementary school, where the bonfire was already burning. A teepee of bamboo poles provides the framework for the fire, and then people pile on the shime-nawa and other things to burn.

I found this picture online, but this is what it may have looked like before the fire was started.

And here's what it looks like after.

Here's Bruce and the elders. On the sticks are Mochi, or pounded rice balls, which we wrapped in foil and roasted in the fire. Eating them is supposed to bring you good luck and protect you against illness. In fact, just being near the bonfire is all kinds of beneficial -- you will grow younger if you warm yourself by the fire, your handwriting will improve and you will grow wiser if you burn your first calligraphy writing of the year, you will stay healthy and won't catch a cold if you eat Mochi roasted in the fire, your crops will grow if you scatter ashes from the fire in your fields. So we're anticipating lots of good fortune in the coming year!

The fire department was ready, just in case....

When our Mochi was sufficiently roasted, we went to get a bowl of sweet red bean soup to eat with it.

Then we watched the entertainment.

I don't know what the dancing meant. The performers were school children with a few adults. The boy out in front and the children standing were wearing masks and doing elaborate hand motions, and the music was mostly drums.

We walked back to the Fujii home, where they had dinner prepared for us. Fujii Kyodai and Fujii Shimai (Brother and Sister, respectively) don't speak English, although I think they understand a great deal. Their daughter Aimi does - she served in the Utah Salt Lake City Mission, attended BYU-Hawaii, and married a man from Alaska. They have a 2 year old and are in Japan, staying with her parents while her husband studies acupuncture. Their son, Kasey (I'm sure that's not how its spelled, but that's how its pronounced) and his wife just graduated from BYU-Idaho (he served a mission in San Diego) and were in Japan for the holidays, heading back to the states where he's preparing to go to dental school. We had a delightful time in their home. They served Japanese curry and rice, with a pretty typical American salad, fresh fruit, and a brownie and ice cream for dessert!

They invited us to come back -- we'll have to take translators with us, but we know a few missionaries who I'm sure would be willing!

Here's what Elder Lunt shared on Facebook about the Dondo-Yaki experience:
Recently, we had the chance to go to the Japanese festival Dondoyaki. I enjoyed learning about how they burn their New Years decorations to receive luck for the year. They built large piles of these decorations and then lit them on fire. It created large bonfires, which we used to cooked mochi (pounded ride balls). We then ate the mochi in an anko (sweet red bean) soup. What I enjoyed most about it though was the time for reflection and another chance to think about what I want to do with this year. As I thought about all the things that had happened in only one year, I was amazed by all the wonderful people I met, places I had been, and things I had learned. However, as I watched them burn the decorations they had put up only weeks before, I realized that was all behind me now, and the next important thing to do now was to go forward and make even more great things happen. Yet what made me feel the most happiness, was that I was eating mochi and anko soup in Japan talking with people in Japanese as a missionary. It reminded me of the words of President Thomas S. Monson, "Learn from the past, prepare for the future, and live in the present" (April 2003 General Conference). I hope we can all take a chance and learn from our past, aim where we want to go, and start to live, be happy, and start moving to where we are aiming today.