Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #wagashi

Most recents (14)

🎨A MODERN TOUCH🖌️

One of the Shōren-in's (青蓮院) most striking features greets you as you enter the drawing room...a series of bold coloured lotuses, blooming across 60 panels.
Begun in 2005, the work was created by the artist 'Ki-yan' (キーヤン/Kimura Hideki 木村英輝).
#Japan ImageImageImageImage
When visiting Shōren-in, Kimura was suddenly inspired to fill the drawing room's plain fusuma with colour.

It took him two years to complete the 3 sets of lotus paintings (蓮三部作)...
🪷"Blue Illusion" (青の幻想)
🪷"Amitabha's Pure Land" (極楽浄土)
🪷"Hymn of Life" (生命賛歌) ImageImageImageImage
Why all the blue lotuses?🤔

Shōren-in was originally constructed atop Mt Hiei as a lodging facility for monks serving at Enryaku-ji.

Shōren-bō was named after a nearby pond in which blue lotus flowers bloomed ('shōrenge'). Many famous monks, such as Saichō & Ennin, lived here. twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Image
Read 8 tweets
'May Sickness' (五月病 'gogatsu-byō') is a term for a seasonal disorder that strikes just as Golden Week comes to an end.
After the flurry of changes that take place each April, it may seem like May should be smooth sailing, but returning to work/school after the break is tough. ImageImageImageImage
It may seem like a small thing, but sweets absolutely help lift a gloomy mood...

🌫️🌩️☁️😶‍🌫️🌥️🌤️🌞

Kameya Yoshinaga (亀屋良長) has done the impossible and perfectly captured the blue skies & cotton puff clouds of May in sweet form☺️

The wonderful 'hikōki-gumo' (ひこうき雲)✨ ImageImageImageImage
While 'May Blues' doesn't sound particularly serious, in some cases it can lead to depression, anxiety & insomnia.
In April the new school/work year begins, and there's a feeling that Golden Week only helps exacerbate feelings of disorientation, mental exhaustion, & apprehension. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Read 4 tweets
The weather is warm and the baby ume are plumping up nicely...so thoughts naturally turn to refreshing 'ao-ume' (青梅 'unripe plums')🙌
Kameya Yoshinaga's (亀屋良長) vibrant 🍑-like version contain a delicious ume jelly within.

#和菓子 #Kyoto #京都 #青梅 #wagashi #ume #plum ImageImageImageImage
For those who can't wait for the fruit to mature, juicy looking 'aoume' (青梅) offer a nice, sweet alternative.

@shioyoshiken's (塩芳軒) annual offering...

#wagashi #和菓子 #Kyoto #京都 #青梅 #ume #plum ImageImageImageImage
One sweet I was very sad to miss out on this year was @o_itotatsu's 'Kyōto-carrot' (京にんじん), created to celebrate the 'year of the rabbit'.
Hopefully he'll be inspired by more local vegetables in the future🙏😉

Photo thanks🙇‍♂️-itotatsu.com
#itotatsu #Kyoto #京都 ImageImageImageImage
Read 3 tweets
🐰🎑MOON MORSELS🥮🥰
When the Harvest Moon (お月見) and Feast of Chrysanthemums (菊の節句) arrive together, you know plates will be groaning and bellies will be full🙌

one for the dog
one for the crow...
rice cakes
犬の餅烏が餅もつかれけり
-Issa (小林一茶).
Trans. Lanoue.
#京都 ImageImageImageImage
Nao-san tucks in to Kameya Yoshinaga's (亀屋良長 @yoshimura0303) 'hane-usagi' (はねうさぎ).
Break open the cute moon rabbit and add hot water to create delicious oshiruko (お汁粉), a sweet bean soup.

#お月見 #moonviewing #moonrabbit #月の兎 #wagashi #和菓子 #Kyoto #京都 #お汁粉
Each rabbit comes with a random kohaku (琥珀) moon. The phase of the moon-sweet determines your fortune...a full moon represents the best luck you can have.

Nao-san got...🥁...a full moon!🎉

A thread all about kohaku and other types of sweets⬇️

#亀屋良長 ImageImageImageImage
Read 9 tweets
Happy "Owl Day"!🦉🙌

when the owl hoots
how many are left?
wildflowers
ふくろふよ鳴ばいくらの草の花
-Issa (小林一茶), 1810.

#OwlAwarenessDay #InternationalOwlAwarenessDay #owls #フクロウ #Japan #ukiyoe #浮世絵

Image thanks🙇‍♂️ - ukiyo-e.org & harashobo.com
Through a play on words, in Japan owls have come to be celebrated as bringers of luck and relievers of suffering.

🦉'Fukurō' (梟 'owl') can be broken down into homonyms for...
🍀'luck comes' (福 'fuku' /来 'ku' /郎 'rō').
🤕'without hardship' (不 'fu' /苦労 'kurō').
#Japan #梟
Owls make a regular appearance in Beniya Miyake's (紅谷三宅 @beniyamiyake) annual line-up.

Last autumn's creations were known as "owls that bring good fortune" (幸運を呼ぶミミズク)🦉😋

➡️beniyamiyake.raku-uru.jp
➡️instagram.com/beniya_miyake/
#wagashi #和菓子 #フクロウ #梟 #紅谷三宅
Read 11 tweets
👅MELT-IN-THE-MOUTH MORSELS💦

Wibbly-wobbly warabimochi (わらび餅)☺️

A popular summer snack in Kansai, the melt-in-your-mouth warabimochi is a jelly-like sweet traditionally made from bracken starch (わらび粉 'warabiko').
It's covered with sweet, toasted soybean flour (黄粉).
There is a legend that Emperor Daigo (醍醐天皇 885-930) loved a particular type of warabimochi so much that he bestowed on it the rank of 'dayū' (大夫 -5th court rank). Over time 'Oka-tayū' (岡大夫) came to be used for warabimochi in general.
#Kyoto #Japan #わらび餅 #warabimochi
As real bracken starch (warabi) can be very expensive, many stores nowadays substitute it with potato, tapioca or kudzu (Japanese arrowroot) starch.

Today's delicious warabimochi is from Sagano's 'Chikuji-an' (嵯峨野/竹路庵). It's absolutely buried in kinako!🙌
#Japan #Kyoto
Read 13 tweets
🪢IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME🪵

Between July 10-14th the floats that will participate in the Gion Matsuri's first parade (the 'Saki Matsuri' 先祭り - July 17th) are constructed. The parts are laid out, slotted together, and then meticulously bound in rope.
#Kyoto #祇園祭
The 'hoko' (鉾) take around 3 days to complete, the smaller 'yama' (山) only 1. Float decorations are displayed in the 'kaisho' (会所), the meeting place of each 'float neighbourhood'.
Using only rope to bind the float skeletons allows for much more flexibility during the parade. ImageImageImageImage
Float frames are known as 'yagura-gumi' (やぐら組み 'turret style'), and the method of binding is called 'nawa-garami' (縄がらみ 'rope construction').

Ropes are held in place by a series of intricate knots, such as the 'prawn knot' (海老結び) & 'female butterfly bow' (雌蝶結び). ImageImageImageImage
Read 11 tweets
🍵HUNTING FIREFLIES✨

Each year Shimogamo-jinja (下鴨神社) holds a special tea gathering called 'Hotarubi-no-Chakai' (蛍火の茶会). Over 600 fireflies are released beside the Mitarashi-gawa (御手洗川) as evening falls, bringing an otherworldly feel to the tea ceremony.
#Japan
What better way to celebrate firefly season than with Kameya Yoshinaga's (亀屋良長) cooling 'hotaru-no-yoru' (蛍の夜 'evening fireflies').
The sweet is a type of 'kingyoku' (錦玉), a jelly made from boiling agar and sugar...particularly popular in summer.

➡️@YuikoYoshimura
#京都
In the traditional calendar June 11th-15th is known as 'kusaretaru kusa hotaru to naru' (腐草為螢), 'rotten grass becomes fireflies'. There was a belief, imported from the mainland, that fireflies were born from grass decaying in the humid early summer heat.
#Japan #fireflies
Read 13 tweets
👣LOTUS LOVE😇
In Kyōto 'kanrensetsu' (観蓮節), 'lotus flower viewing', coincides with the culmination of the Gion Matsuri, when the gods of Yasaka-jinja arrive at their temporary holiday abode in the city.
Temple ponds offer a welcome distraction from the sweltering summer days. ImageImageImageImage
this world
bristles with thorns...
yet there are lotuses
世の中よ針だらけでも蓮の花
-Kobayashi Issa (小林一茶), 1815.

The mesmerizing, ultrahydrophobic surface of lotus leaves😵‍💫👏😊
#Japan #Kyoto #京都 #Yakushiji #薬師寺 #Nara #奈良 #lotus #蓮
Lotus flowers in many ways perfectly compliment spring's cherry blossoms: sakura (桜) have become a symbol of life's impermanence in Japan, whereas the lotus (蓮 'hasu') offers a more hopeful message of enlightenment and rebirth.

#Kyoto #京都 #Japan #lotus #蓮 #ハス #観蓮節 ImageImageImageImage
Read 21 tweets
CHERRY BLOSSOMS🌸

cherry blossoms-
over there an edge
of Old Japan
花さくやあれが大和の小口哉
-Issa (小林一茶), 1798.

This weekend marks the start of sakura season here in Kyōto, and the crisp weather suggests the trees will be putting on a special show this year.
#Japan #桜
It's often difficult to gauge when to start celebrating the various blossoms...but this isn't a problem inside the teahouse😋🌸

a bevy of teahouses
suddenly!
cherry blossoms
茶屋村の出現したるさくらかな
-Kobayashi Issa (小林一茶), 1819.
#wagashi #和菓子 #Kyoto #Japan #blossoms
Incredibly it's been 2 years since Miho-san performed tea ceremony beneath the (now gone!) weeping cherry tree😱

Nodate (野点)⬇️
🌸
🌸 (overhead)

Introducing 'Chabako' (茶箱)⬇️
🌸
🌸
Read 16 tweets
🌸FOOD FOR THE EQUINOX🍂
Food plays an important roll at Higan (彼岸).

On the first and last day of the equinoctial week, rice dumplings (団子 'dango') are offered at the family altar. Rice cakes covered in bean jam (botamochi in spring and ohagi in fall) are presented mid-week.
Botamochi and ohagi are popular during the equinoctial weeks, when they are made as sacred offerings & enjoyed as tasty snacks.
Glutinous rice is soaked, cooked and formed into a ball. Around this ball a thick sweet bean paste is packed on.

Photo thanks-tokubai.co.jp/news
Read 15 tweets
🌊✨🙏AMABIE (アマビエ)🖌️🤒🙌
In Kyōto and many parts of Japan the pandemic revived a half forgotten deity, dusting her down & repackaging her for a new generation.
'Amabie' (アマビエ) has gone from being the savior of small, rural communities, to icon of the COVID-19 age.
#Japan
WHAT IS AMABIE?
Occupying the grey area between 'yōkai' (妖怪) and 'kami' (神), Amabie (アマビエ) was a 3-legged, mermaid-like creature said to protect against disease.

As the pandemic unfolded, her image was once again seized upon and popularized as a protective charm🙏
#Japan
The most famous sighting of Amabie (perhaps the only sighting) was in Higo Province (肥後国 Kumamoto), mid-May 1846.
An official went to investigate a mysterious glowing by the coast and was confronted by a long-haired, beak-mouthed, 3-legged, scaly being from the deep sea.
#妖怪
Read 8 tweets
🥧SWEETS AND SELF-CARE🥰

For 'doyō ushi-no-hi' (土用丑の日 'midsummer day of the ox'), & this day only, @narumi_sekihan sell a very special sweet.
The eel-shaped 'unagi-manju' (うなぎ万寿) offers an adorable alternative to gobbling up real freshwater eel (an endangered species).
Until November 7th contemporary artist Yamaguchi Akira (山口晃) is exhibiting his work at 'ZENBI' Kagizen Art Museum.
To celebrate the event Kagizen Yoshifusa (鍵善良房) have produced 'Tameiki-chan' (ためいきちゃん), a pointy-headed, rather melancholy-looking sweet.
#kyoto #京都
Kyōto is hardly crying out for new mascots, but surely there's room for one more😉

➡️kagizen.co.jp/en/

#Kyoto #Japan #wagashi #KagizenYoshifusa #Tameikichan #京都 #和菓子 #鍵善良房 #ためいきちゃん
Read 11 tweets
😋FRIDAY REFRESHMENTS🍡

Botamochi (牡丹餅) and Ohagi (御萩) are simple rice cakes covered in bean jam. Served around the equinoctial weeks, they have become powerful symbols of spring & autumn.
Less well known are their summer and winter versions, available around the solstices.
Yesterday was the last chance to try @o_itotatsu's summer ohagi, known as 'yofune' (夜舟 'night boat').
The name is an allusion to the unexpected texture of the sweet...it looks like a plain rice cake, but when you bite into it you discover that the rice is smoothly mashed.
#夜舟
Boats arriving to the wharfs at Hagi by night would not reveal the nature of their goods to the customs officials until the light of day. 'Night boat' has thus come to mean an 'unexpected result'.
'Yofune' look like normal 'ohagi', but their texture and taste are different.
Read 8 tweets

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