traditional coming-of-age ceremony for children
Historical Japanese rite of passage in which boys received a new loincloth (褌) and girls a new underskirt, marking a step toward adulthood. Now largely obsolete; encountered mainly in historical or ethnographic contexts.
In the Edo period, a rite of passage called hekoiwai was performed.
In this region, the custom of hekoiwai survived until recent years.
Modern coming-of-age ceremony for 20-year-olds, whereas 褌祝い is an older, pre-modern rite for younger children involving specific garments.
A still-practiced Shinto rite for children aged 3, 5, and 7; 褌祝い is a separate, now mostly obsolete ceremony with different age and clothing customs.
Standard kanji spelling for this traditional ceremony term.
Abbreviated spelling; less common but still encountered.
Ateji spelling using 兵児 for へこ; rare and mainly historical.
Compound of 褌 (fundoshi, 'loincloth') + 祝い (iwai, 'celebration'). The reading へこ is an older or dialectal variant of ふんどし. The exact historical origin of the ceremony is uncertain, but it is associated with pre-modern Japanese life-stage rituals.