This exhibition features springtime festivities—some whose origins can be traced back several millennia and others that were adopted in the 20th century—in China, Korea, and Japan. Annual observances during the spring season traditionally mark the start of a new year in East Asian countries. As such, many spring festivities and their accompanying rituals express hopes for success in new endeavors at the personal and communal levels.

 

Throughout the histories of these countries, ritualized responses to seasonal cycles were variously institutionalized to create occasions of shared culture and ethos among celebrants. These observances highlight particular regional folk practices as well as the cultural flows within East Asia. The strong influence of traditional Chinese elite culture—through diplomacy, imperialism, and diasporic spread—can be seen in a number of spring festivities currently shared among these nations. On the other hand, the adoptions of observances such as Valentine’s Day reflect circulations of more recent influence from outside Asia. However old or new, the observances center on the ritualized actions of celebrants and gain meaning through collective, communal recognition.

 

China, Korea, and Japan all followed twelve-month lunisolar calendars until their respective adoptions of the Gregorian calendar in 1912, 1896, and 1873. Within the traditional lunisolar calendars, the first three months of the year are considered spring, followed by three months each of summer, autumn, and winter. In Chinese communities and in South Korea, traditional festivities continue to be observed on the lunisolar calendar; in Japan, the observances have all been converted to Gregorian calendar dates.

 

To underscore the shared as well as individual traditions of China, Korea, and Japan, the celebrations in this exhibition are presented over background designs of the pine, bamboo, and plum. These three plants that thrive in the chill of early spring are known as the “Three Friends of the Cold Season,” a popular traditional East Asian motif in literature and the arts that represents the values of steadfastness, perseverance, and resilience.

 

This exhibition has been organized to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures in 1970.

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Naomi Fukumori, Curator & Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures

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Contributors:  Mark Bender, Shan Gao, Yawei Li, Qingyang Lin, Tristan Lynxwiler, Shunichi Maruyama, Danielle Ooyoung Pyun, Wenyuan Shao, Haley Shomette, Patricia Sieber and students of her course EALL 3223: The Buddhist Tradition (Autumn 2019), Kumiko Takizawa, Abhijit Varde (CLLC),  MacKenzie Wilcox, and Ashley Wright.