Have you heard of the word “Sambonjime”? It’s kind of a Japanese ceremony. I’m wondering if you also have a similar ceremony in your country. Please tell me if you have.
*It would be easy to understand what I explain from now on if you remember the following.
| Japanese | 一 | 二 | 三 |
| English | one | two | three |
What is “Sambonjime”?
Sambonjime is written as 三本締め in Japanese. “三本” has the meaning of “three times”, “締め” has the meaning of something like “closing”. That means, we do a unique action three times at the end of an event as a closing ceremony.
Off the topic though we also have such a ceremony with another style 一本締め(Ipponjime) as well, but I skip the detail because it would make you confuse easily at the moment.
We do it at the end of an event, although we don’t always do it at all events. It’s difficult to refer to which events we do it, I would say we tend to do it if the event is a traditional stuff.
How to do “Sambonjime”
First, let me show you a video people did it.
They are firemen in Kumamoto, Japan, they did it in their new year event.
People clapped their hands with a specific rhythm after the man who stands on the centre said something. This clapping is Sambonjime.
What did he say?
He said “お手を拝借、よーぉ！(Ote o haishaku, yooooo-oh!)”.
The first part “Ote o haishaku” has the meaning of “Ready to clap your hands”, “Yooooo-oh” is something like “heave-ho!” or “One, two three!”. You know, it’s a typical phrase if you want to do something with people at the same time.
We usually say “せーの(se no)” if we want to do something with people at the same time. “Yooooo-oh” is rather used only for Sambonjime and the similar things in most cases nowadays. I mean, if someone said “Yooooo-oh” we automatically think we should clap the hands with a specific rhythm after the calling.
Learn the rhythm
This is the basic rhythm, and if you do Sambonjime you have to repeat it 3 times.
As you thought, if you want to do 一本締め(Ipponjime), you do it only once. I don’t know why but 二本締め(Nihonjime) doesn’t exist.
Note: Even If you are doing Ipponjime, if someone shout “Yo!” at the end of the basic rhythm, people around you are going to do Sambonjime. Not finished yet, follow their action.
Did you master it? If you meet Japanese, try to say “Yooooo-oh!” whilst getting ready to clap your hands. I guess most Japanese would start Sambonjime automatically. Maybe. Try it.
