One of the best times of year in Japan is the New Year holiday season, called O-shogatsu. This is the main holiday of the year for the vast majority of Japanese, and far and away the most enthusiastically celebrated. On New Year’s Eve, having spent the day with family, perhaps watching the famous...

It’s happened every New Year's Eve for centuries. After dark, a lone figure stalks up the snowy path to the front door of a house. Knocking on the door, he asks whether anyone in the house is ill, has died in the past year, or is newly married. If the answer to all three questions is no, the mysteri...

Itsukushima Shrine’s Chinkasai Festival is held every December 31st, providing a show visitors are unlikely to forget. The festival is intended to protect both the Shrine and the town from disastrous fires, a real concern where, traditionally, close-set buildings were constructed largely of wood and...