Japanese Labor Thanksgiving Day

            While Thanksgiving, for the reasons it is celebrated in the United States, is unique to the American culture, other cultures have their own version of Thanksgiving and Japan is no different. In Japan it is called Labor Thanksgiving or Kinrō kansha no hi (勤労感謝の日) and is celebrated on November 23rd.  In Japan, during this holiday, people are encouraged to give thanks for their employment and the prosperity this brings to one’s family (Miller, 2011).  While this holiday was formed in 1948 it has its roots in much older traditions.

            This modern holiday is believed to have its roots in harvest celebrations where people would give thanks for a good harvest.  While many cultures have similar traditions, in ancient Japan “the emperor would make the first offering of the fresh rice harvest” (Morrill, 2009) to the kami (spirts or gods) and then he would eat of the rice himself.   This ritual stems from an ancient practice that is detailed in the book A History of the Japanese People (Capt. F. Brinkley, 1912) where it states:

In the records of the mythological age it is related that Amaterasu obtained seeds of the "five cereals," and, recognizing their value as food, caused them to be cultivated, offering a part to the Kami when they were ripe and eating some herself. This became a yearly custom, and when Ninigi set out to conquer Japan, his grandmother gave rice seed to the ancestors of the Nakatomi and the Imibe families, who thenceforth conducted the harvest festival (nii-name, literally "tasting the new rice") every autumn, the sovereign himself taking part, and the head of the Nakatomi reciting a prayer for the eternity of the Imperial line and the longevity of the Emperor. (chap. 8, para. 10)

            As we can see from the passage above the ancient name for this ritual was Niiname-sai (新嘗祭) which literally means “tasting the new rice” (Capt. F. Brinkley, 1912).  This ritual is mentioned as occurring as far back as November 678 in the Nihon Shoki (The Chronicle of Japan) which itself dates around 720 (Labor Thanksgiving Day, N.D.). This ritual is also known as Shinjo-sai.
            While the foods enjoyed on this holiday in Japan are different than those partaken in the United States and the reasons for the origins of the holidays are different, the spirit of the holidays is very similar in both countries.  In a lot of respects we are really not that different. 

Bibliography

Capt. F. Brinkley, R. A. (1912). A History of the Japanese People. Retrieved 2015, from The Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/27604/pg27604-images.html

Labor Thanksgiving Day. (N.D.). Retrieved 2015, from Kids Web Japan: http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/explore/calendar/november/labor.html

Miller, A. (2011, November 22). Labor Thanksgiving Day – 勤労感謝の日. Retrieved 2015, from Axiom Magazine: http://www.axiommagazine.jp/2011/11/22/labor-thanksgiving-day-%E5%8B%A4%E5%8A%B4%E6%84%9F%E8%AC%9D%E3%81%AE%E6%97%A5/

Morrill, A. (2009). Google Books. Retrieved 2015, from Thanksgiving and Other Harvest Festivals: https://books.google.com/books?id=3Xde_E7-r50C&pg=PA51&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false