And in various places all over Asakusa, the pine and bamboo combinations called "kadomatsu" (門松) and whose cut top allegedly started from Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康, 1543-1616), before he became shogun when, some time in the end of 1572 and with the New Year getting close, he cut a bamboo with his sword saying that this is how he will cut down his opponent, Takeda Shingen (武田 信玄, 1521–1573) --"take" in Takeda's name can also mean "bamboo" written with a different character. For the record, Takeda died four months later but not by Ieyasu's hand: probably from pneumonia.
(For a bigger version of this picture both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore" set on Flickr).
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