Four Japanese New Year traditions and what we can reflect on in our Christian faith

Different cultures can show us something new in our understanding of Jesus, says Rachel Mataraki. Here she shows how God’s fingerprints can be seen in the new year traditions in her home of Japan.

Deconstructing before there was a word for it, I moved to Japan in my twenties determined to embrace everything New Age and Eastern. Later, in meetings and friendships that only God could have orchestrated, I got connected to an amazing African American missionary musical couple and IAM  - a group connected to painter Makoto Fujimura. These Christian artists inspired and encouraged me and I was eventually baptized by a Samoan pastor in a Korean Church with Japanese Christians.