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New year compositions in Tokyo: fir for the room while kadomatsu stand
New year compositions in Tokyo are the indoor half of the season: kadomatsu of pine and bamboo mark the city's doorways from about 26 December to 7 January. Indoors the season turns to pine, ume plum and senryo berries for prosperity. The noble fir and berries in this range are meant for that indoor side, not the doorstep. The real choice is whether a piece stays put on a table or gets carried out the door, and whether it's meant for a family at home or an office floor.
Pine and bamboo by the door, noble fir in the room
A kadomatsu is bamboo and pine, built to stand outside and announce the season to the street. What fills this range is a different plant doing a different job: noble fir with berries, arranged for a room rather than a doorway. The two are not meant to repeat each other, and nothing in this set of new year compositions in Tokyo promises pine.
The formats split along the same line as the plants. Bouquets and baskets are built to be carried out and handed to someone, at a door, a desk or a bedside. Tabletop arrangements, a wreath and trees built from fir branches are built to be set down once and left, on a shelf, a sideboard or a low table, for as long as the season runs. One piece worth knowing by name is the New Year Tree from Danish Nobilis Branches, a small branch tree sized for a shelf or the top of a chest of drawers rather than the floor.
A kadomatsu stands for roughly a fortnight, from about 26 December to 7 January, and a tabletop arrangement bought for the same shogatsu days is built to last about that long too. The florist sets the fir and berries into a block of wet floral foam rather than water alone, which is what lets the piece sit on a table with no vase underneath it.
Foam that's watered every day holds a composition for roughly as long as a vase would. Left to dry out, it stops taking water up almost entirely. The way to water it is a thin stream run across the whole visible surface of the foam, never poured into one corner and never tilted. A spot away from a radiator, direct sun and a bowl of ripe fruit keeps the piece going longest, much as it does for hotels, offices and the winter indoors.
A bento cake beside the fir, named after a Japanese lunch box
A bento cake is small enough to sit in one hand, boxed the way a takeaway meal is boxed. The cake itself was invented in South Korea; it borrowed its name only from the Japanese lunch box it resembles once it's closed up. A short greeting, piped in cream across the top, is usually left for whoever opens the box.
Within New Year gifts, the cake comes paired with fir: the cake gets eaten that evening, while the fir stays on after it. An iced cake shouldn't sit out at room temperature for more than two hours.
One order for the whole floor: New Year corporate gifts in Tokyo
Marunouchi, the business district by Tokyo Station, is packed with the offices of large companies, and a single shared composition is enough to mark the season for a whole floor there. Where several teams need their own, more than one composition can go out together: all of them go into one cart, each to its own address, and delivery is charged per address rather than once for the whole batch. How a courier reaches a reception desk, and what hotels and offices expect of a delivery, is covered in the flowers in Tokyo overview.
Companies ordering for an office can ask for an invoice made out to the business and the closing accounting documents on request, and a standing order moves onto a contract once the deliveries become regular. Business options are in New Year corporate gifts.
For new year compositions delivery in Tokyo, most orders are handed over the same day they're placed, and a date and time slot can be booked into any zone of the city; the exact window shows on the bouquet's own card before checkout. A photo of the finished piece goes out before the courier leaves, and the zones and timing in full sit on the delivery across Tokyo page.
A basket of noble fir is the pick for handing something over at a door or a desk. New Year bouquets are tied to be handed over too and will want a vase once they arrive. For a piece meant to stay put on a table through the shogatsu days, tabletop arrangements are the better place to start.