Japan­ese Am­bas­sador Yoshi­masa Tezu­ka is sur­round­ed by gov­ern­ment min­is­ters as he per­forms the tra­di­tion­al Kaga­mi Be­ra­ki cer­e­mo­ny to cel­e­brate the birth­day of the Japan­ese Em­per­or dur­ing a re­cep­tion at the Am­bas­sador's St Clair res­i­dence on Wednes­day night. With him from left are En­er­gy Min­is­ter Kevin Ram­nar­ine, Trade Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath, For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Win­ston Dook­er­an, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Tim Gopeesingh, Min­is­ter of the Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Dr Lin­coln Dou­glas, and new Min­is­ter of Jus­tice Chris­lyn Moore.

In Japan, the Kaga­mi Bi­ra­ki cer­e­mo­ny is per­formed to cel­e­brate new be­gin­nings. This in­volves break­ing a cask filled with Sake (a Japan­ese fer­ment­ed bev­er­age) which is then served to guests.

The Sake cask is opened by a few per­sons us­ing wood­en ham­mers. To min­i­mize spillage, the top of the cask should be gen­tly hit with the ham­mer un­til it breaks open. PHO­TO: AN­DRE ALEXAN­DER