Waiting for the moon

Waiting for the moon

Japanese Painting

paper(hannji &tengujyoshi),ink,mineral and dyed mud pigment,pastel,colorpencil

Although now completely outdated, a folk belief

called “月待講̶Tsukimachiko” used to be

practiced everywhere in Japan. An example of

this is on the twenty-third night and the twenty-

sixth night, nights with specifi c moon phases,

people are come together and eat and drink

white waiting for the moon to begin and then

again they make a small wish.

I’ve always felt something mystical

about this simple folk belief. One winter day, I

visited a small village in Gunma Prefecture after

hearing that there were many stone pagodas

built for this event.

The village, which is famous for

apples, was in the season of harvesting, and red

apples were off ered to the lonely stone Buddha

standing in the apple orchard. How does it feel

to watch the moon slowly rise for a long time?

The scenery that you are looking at seems to

stop, and is changing little by little. I thought

that people who were looking forward to

something and carefully staring at the sky above

the forest would be able to see things that they

normally wouldn’t notice.