Toshi no Ichi

Toshi no Ichi is a festival that celebrates the end of the previous year and the coming of the next. Toshi no Ichi takes place the day prior to the Oshogatsu, or Festival of New Year's Day, and prepares the Empire for the coming of the new year. Participants invoke rituals meant to prepare Rokugan for the visit of the Sun, the fortunes, and the kami, as it is said that they look down upon the Empire with great interest at this time. Peasants hang a rope of straw known as theshimenawa inside their houses to ward it from the evil spirits of the previous year. These ropes are burned at the end of the festival along with the other parts of the celebration. Homes prepare a special altar covered in rice cakes and sake called toshidana, which honors the spirits of the new year. At dusk, the temples of the Brotherhood of Shinsei are emptied, and their walls and floors scrubbed clean with fresh water. The monks then ring the bells of the temple forty-nine times, seven times seven, for the benevolent and wrathful faces of the Seven Fortunes, and invite the peasants and the nobles back into the temples. (Rokugan Campaign Setting p. 123)