The New Year’s pine kadomatsu is a pair of decorations consisting of bamboo, pine branches and straw that is placed on either side of the entrances to private or public buildings (here Matsumoto castle) some days before before New Year to invoke the Shinto deity Toshigami-sama, who brings happiness, but only when he is invited through kadomatsu decorations. The pine symbolises the place where the spirits of deity live, bamboo is said to be suitable to wish the trouble of life away because it grows straight towards the sky, plum flowers are considered as strong because the can bloom during a cold period.
more new year´s customs
