ABSTRACT
This essay represents an analysis of a bo¯nenkai which took place in December of 1982. Bo¯nenkai, sometimes translated as ‘forgetting-the-hardships-of-the-year parties’, are year-end parties held, for example, in Japanese companies and workgroups, in student clubs or among the a faculty of university departments (for examples see Lebra 1976: 118-9; Matsumoto 1970: 26; Skinner 1978: 463). The bo¯nenkai which is to be analysed here was organized by the Joint ‘Sports Promotion Committee’ of two communities in the city of Otsu (population 250,000) which lies just east of Kyoto. Twenty people participated in this gathering which lasted for over four hours, and which – like many drinking occasions in Japan – included a rich array of activities: formal and informal toasting, merrymaking, joking and singing, as well as more ‘practical’ pursuits such as gossiping, exchanging information and politicking.
