It has only ten days before the New Year comes.

Japanese people greet and celebrate New Year with special cuisine "Osechi."

People eat osechi when the New Year comes.

 

Today, we would like to introduce the history, origin, and the meaning of osechi.

 

The origin and history of Osechi

The origin of osechi came from the meal for seasonal events introduced from China.

When the seasons change, people gathered at a palace, and had a banquet. That gathering was called "sechie," and the meal for sechie was called "sechiku."

This word "sechiku" becomes "osechi."

 

Osechi was originally the special meal for upper class people. From Edo era, (about 400 years ago) osechi was spread to public people.

There are five seasonal festivals in a year, so there are five sechiku within a year.

Now, the most important seasonal festival, the New Years' Day becomes the day for eating osechi.

 

The meaning of Osechi Ryori (meal) and jubako

 The meal for Osechi

There are various dishes for osechi and all of them have auspicious meanings.

I introduce my favorite dishes here.

Kazunoko (herring roe)

Kazunoko is herring roe. We eat pickled kazunoko in salt.

Since there are lot of roe, kazunoko is believed to bring the bless with children or pray for the prosperity of descendants.

 

Tatsukuri or Gomame

Tatsukuri or Gomame is small fries of sardines boiled in sweeten soy sauce. The name of this dish, tatsukuri or gomame depends on regions.

 

Sardine was used for the manure to the field. Therefore, tatsukuri have been eaten to pray for the fertility.

 

Why do we use Jubako for Osechi?

Jubako is a box for serving food. We can pile up some boxes.

Most of jubako are lacquered, and some of them are decorated with gold lacquer work or mother-of-pearl work.

 

As I mentioned before, jubako piles some boxes. Therefore, we use jubako with a pray for piling up lucks.

 

Japan Design Store offers special jubako for Osechi in winter.

However, we also offer simple jubako for lunch box.

 

How about making your own osechi with jubako?

 

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Simple & Modern Japanese Oju