Japanese New Year Coloring Pages

A Special Day to Celebrate the Start of a New Year

Japanese New Year is the most important celebration in Japan. You celebrate the start of a brand-new year, welcome the Toshigami god into your home, and pray for everyone in your family to be happy and have a great harvest.

What Are Its Features and Symbols?

Everything about Japanese New Year has a special meaning to wish for good luck, a long life, and plenty of great things.

• Kadomatsu: This is a decoration made of bamboo and pine placed in front of your house gate. It is a guide sign so the Toshigami god can find your home without getting lost.
• Kagami Mochi: Round rice cakes stacked on top of each other. This is a special food to say thank you and make wishes to the Toshigami god for the year.
• Hatsuhinode and Mount Fuji: The very first sunrise of the year and Mount Fuji bring super good luck. They are symbols that make your dreams and wishes come true.

Fun Ways to Spend Japanese New Year

On Japanese New Year, you get together with your family and relatives to spend time in special ways.

• Otoshidama: This is a custom where adults give money to kids so you can stay healthy and full of energy in the new year.
• Ozoni and Osechi Ryori: Ozoni is a special soup with rice cakes inside, and the ingredients change depending on where you live. Osechi Ryori is a set of lucky foods where every single dish has a wish for good health and plenty of great things.
• Hatsumode: You go to a shrine or temple to pray for good health and happiness for the whole year.

Japanese New Year Games

There are many fun traditional games to play on Japanese New Year.

• Kite Flying: You fly kites high up in the sky to wish for kids to grow up strong and do great things in life.
• Hanetsuki: You hit a birdie back and forth using a wooden paddle called a hagoita. If you drop the birdie, someone gets to scribble on your face with black ink as a silly penalty!
• Top Spinning: Watching a top spin brings good luck, showing that money will flow smoothly and everything will go well for you.

How to choose colors: Let's use bright and happy colors!

When you color a Japanese New Year picture, try using lots of lucky and bright colors to make it feel extra festive!

• Basic lucky colors: Try picking colors centered around red, white, gold, green, and vermilion.

Colors for each design:

• Kadomatsu and Bamboo: Use dark green or bamboo green. Add red or gold to the tied ropes and decorations.
• Mount Fuji: Use blue or navy blue to make it look grand. It looks beautiful if you paint the peak white!
• Sunrise: Use red, dark orange, or yellow to show the sun rising bright and strong.
• Cherry and Plum Blossoms: Use pink or red to show that spring is coming.
• Kagami Mochi: Keep the main part white. Paint the stand in wood brown or vermilion red to give it a happy Japanese New Year feeling!

How to color 3D style: Make it lively with light and shadow!

There are lots of different things drawn here, so let's add "shadows" and "highlights" to each one to make it look lively! Places to put shadows:

• Try adding darker colors for "shadows" in hollow areas—like under the steps of the kagami mochi, on the knots of the kadomatsu rope, or on the back of the kite—to make them look 3D!

Where the light hits:

• If you use bright colors or leave white space on the side of Mt. Fuji where the first sunrise light hits, or on the very top of the round kagami mochi, it will look shiny and extra festive!

Let's Add Texture!

Colored pencils: For parts with small patterns like the kimono, folding fan, and kite, try using the tip of your colored pencil carefully. This will show off the look of fancy Japanese patterns. Pencil pressure: Hard things like the kadomatsu (pine decoration) look great when you color them firmly with dark colors. Soft things like clouds and cherry blossom petals look nice when you color them softly with light colors. This will make each thing feel just right.

Tips to Enjoy Your Coloring Page!

• A Japanese New Year message!
  • Try writing celebratory words like "Happy Japanese New Year" or things you want to try your best at this year in the empty spaces on your coloring page!
• Everyone in the family's smiling face!
  • For the picture showing the family, try coloring each person's kimono in your favorite bright colors to make a cheerful picture that will make everyone in the family smile!