大掃除 - "Spring" Cleaning

I went to Asano Taiko today, but not to play or practice taiko. They are actually closed for the winter holidays. Not Christmas, but New Year. One of the Japanese traditions leading up to the New Year is to have a big house cleaning, or business cleaning. It's called "Osouji". It's religious background has to do with creating a clean space to welcome in the New Year spirits. I suppose it has psychological symbolism as well. Practically, it is an excuse to clean all of those places and objects that usually get overlooked. In the US, at least, most of us probably do this type of cleaning in the spring time. In Japan, however, it is done sometime during the week leading up to New Year's Eve.

Today was Asano's Osouji day. Whoever had a couple free hours headed over to Asano to help out with cleaning windows, polishing taiko and sweeping up all the places that usually don't get swept. My job was cleaning windows. I brought my daughter along in hopes that she could help out, but there wasn't much work for her to do. So she became my photographer.