New Year's Shrine Visit III

Youmu Konpaku is a half-human, half-phantom gardener of Hakugyokurou, and a fencing instructor. She wears her furisode for the New Year and prays for good luck this year. Being cut by her sword, Hakurouken, will dispel confusion. But if phantoms are cut, they will be put to rest, and as for humans... they will bleed.

Reisen Udongein Inaba is a rabbit from the moon and has Lunatic Red Eyes. She wears her furisode for the New Year and wishes to avoid sickness and injury for the next year... and will work her hardest to sell the medicines that Eirin makes.

Kakizome is the Japanese practice of writing a New Year's resolution using traditional calligraphy. It is a tradition that, at the beginning of the year, the hopes and goals for the next year are written down. In olden times, the water gathered on the first day of the year (called wakamizu) was mixed with ink, and that ink was used to write poetry while facing the lucky direction for that year.

You are asked to go to the school to ask the children to visit Hakurei Shrine. There, you see Keine, Akyuu, and Kosuzu teaching Mokou and the children how to write their kakizome. Why don't you join them and write your own hopes and goals for the coming year?

Yukari brings you to Hakugyokurou where Youmu and Seiran are furiously pounding mochi. Pounding mochi during the New Year can trace its origins to the practice of hardening teeth. The practice involves eating hard food like kagami mochi or chestnuts at the start of the year, which is said to make your teeth harder. The harder the teeth, the healthier the person, or so the belief was long ago. That is possibly why the kanji for age incorporates the kanji for tooth. Healthy teeth lead to a healthy life. So chew well and eat well, and may the next year be one of sound health.