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inherited or in what particular combination or whether it is a physical object or a cultural construction; it says nothing about how long it has been passed or in what
manner, whether orally or in written form Shils,1981, p.12. The word tradition comes from the Latin traditio, which means a ritual, relief or object passed down
within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Originally, traditions are passed orally, without the need for a writing system
“Tradition”, n.d. According to Shils, the conception of tradition is silent about whether
there is acceptable evidence for the truth of the tradition or whether the tradition is accepted without its validity having been established. The decisive criterion is that
having been created through human actions, through thought and imagination, it is handed down from one generation to the next. 1981, p.12. A way of expressing
the duration of a tradition is to speak of it in terms of generations. At a minimum, two transmissions over three generations are required for a pattern of belief or
action to be considered a tradition p.15.
b. Cultural Values
According to Vansina, the cultural values of a society are those ideas and feelings which are accepted by the majority of its members as unquestioned
assumptions. Cultural values are the prejudices and a society. Obviously the aims pursued by each individual are closely linked with these values. However, they
also play a major role in the society as a whole, since they are ultimate guarantee of its functioning and perpetuation 1965, pp.95-96.
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Cultural values color testimonies in three main ways. First is through the medium of the first informant. It means that they determine the choice of what
events to record and the significance attached to them. Second is through the medium of certain cultural concepts. It means that chiefly those concerning time
and historical development, they distort chronology and the historical perspective. Third is through the medium of the past. It means that they make testimonies
conform to cultural ideas, thus turning them into examples to be followed Vansina, 1965, pp.97-108.
c. Japanese Tradition
1 Twins must be separated Twins are not common in Japan. Back in the day, it was believed that
having twins was a bestial act; hence it was common to hide this reality by doing separate registrations or in the case of Kawabata’s characters, to be abandoned. It
is in understanding this old belief that found an appreciation for the author’s decision to put tension in Chieko discovering she had a twin up in the cedar
village Anonymous, 1936. Anthropologists have long suspected that twins are born less frequently
than among whites in Japan. Japanese mothers Confirmation has been difficult because Japanese mothers believe that to bear more than one child at a time is a
bestial act. Therefore, they often hide the birth of twins to separate their children from infancy. Anonymous, 1936.
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2 Matchmaking Matchmaking is the process of matching two people together, usually for
the purpose of marriage. Matchmaking is usually called as an arranged marriage. It is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the
selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile avoiding the process of courtship. Arranged marriages vary in both nature and duration of time from meeting
to engagement. In arranged marriage, the parents may only introduce their son or daughter to a potential husband or wife. From that point on, it is up to the children
to manage the relationship and make a choice. There is no set time period. This is common in Japan “Matchmaking”.
Parents applied the three criteria to screen their future son-in-laws or daughter-in-law. Those criteria are pedigree bibit, quality bobot, and rank
bebet Aida, 2000. Pedigree means origin. This relates to your family background, whether
you have normal well-behaved parents and siblings or not. A few decades ago, blue-blooded gentlemen who were related to the Kings and their associates were
highly preferred. At the present time within the modern society, these titles of nobility mean almost nothing.
Rank means social rank. Sometimes it doesnt really matter whether your salary is hardly enough to feed the family or not, as long as you have a big name
rank
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Quality means the quality of the person. Ideally, people who have done a lot of property fit this criterion. But quality can also be translated as weight. It
means that the heavier you are - the wealthier you are Aida, 2000.
3 Obi Obi and kimono are the traditional clothing of the Edo period, 1600-
1868. However, the obi did not become a prominent part of a woman’s ensemble until the mid Edo period. It was then that designers, weavers and dyers all focused
their talent on creating a longer, wider and more elaborate obi. Obi measurement was then standardized to 360 cm long by 30 cm wide Anonymous, 2001.
Edo fashion was influenced by the design and style that entertainers wear. Women of the samurai class continued to wear the simpler kimono, tied together
with an obi made of braided cords. Characterized by long, flowing sleeves, the kimono was accented by a large, loosely tied obi.
For many years, the obi bow was tied either at the front or on the side. By the mid-Edo period, the obi bow was tied in the back position. It was said that this
style started in the mid-1700s when a Kabuki actor, imitating a young girl, came on stage with his obi tied in the back. Another reason that the back position
became more acceptable was that the sheer bulk of the wider obi became too cumbersome to be positioned in the front of the kimono.
The Meiji era, 1868-1912 witnessed a revolution in the textile industry with the advent of electric weaving looms and chemical dying techniques from the
West. During this time, a womans kimono stopped to be worn in the free-flowing
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style of the earlier days. The new fashion was to tuck the kimono at the waist to adjust the length of the kimono to the womans height. These tucks and folds were
visible and became part of the art of tying the obi Anonymous, 2001.
6. Theory of Tragedy
