J-Subculture News

The Story of Tanabata!

Do you know the story of Tanabata!? Who are we kidding, you probably do if you like Japan. But here’s a refresher course for those of you who walked in late. So-o in ancient China the daughter of the King of Heaven, Orihime (“Weaving Princess”) fell in love with the Celestial Cowherd. After nagging her dad for a really long time, he finally let them get married.

As depicted in Shirokuma Cafe.

But pretty soon they were so busy making out that Orihime stopped weaving her magical heaven cloth or whatever, and the Cowherd stopped tending his magic heaven cows. The King of Heaven, being a bit extreme like most in-laws, created the milky way to keep them apart—except for one day of the year: Tanabata. In other words, Japan has like four holidays for lovers: Valentine’s Day, White Day, Tanabata and Christmas.

 Tanabata in Sendai.

Tanabata is celebrated in Japan at different times throughout July. People write wishes on little strips of paper and tie them to tree branches. In the city of Sendai, it’s celebrated in August, but is famous for its elaborate paper floats. What’s your Tanabata wish? When I was doing my homestay in Tokyo, my host kid sister’s wish was to grow up to be a rabbit. I’ll be going up to see them over summer break, so we’ll see if it came true...

Probably not.