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Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto

Jul 28, 2021 • 11 tweets • 16 min read • Read on X

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@narumi_sekihan

🥧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

Has your skin suffered with all this mask wearing? Has 2020/21 added more worry lines?
Fear not, there is a shrine for you💪😚

Utsukushi Gozen-sha (美御前社) enshrines 3 'goddesses of beauty': Ichikishima-hime (市杵島姫神), Tagori-hime (田心姫神) & Tagitsu-hime (湍津姫神).
#京都

Long popular with the women of Gion, including maiko (舞妓), geiko (芸妓) and those in the beauty industry, nowadays a steady stream of (mostly) female worshipers come to dab 'Biyō-sui' (美容水 'Beauty Water') on their skin💦✨

#Yasakajinja #UtsukushiGozensha #美御前社 #Kyoto

There is a legend that in Edo times a woman suffering from smallpox scars came to the shrine to pray and they were cured (an alternative version is that she caught smallpox and prayed that she would survive without scars, and attributed her recovery to the water of the shrine).

It is said that Yasaka-jinja's main hall sits over 'Ryūketsu' (龍穴 'Dragon Cave'), a vast reservoir with underground channels connected to Shinsen-en & Tō-ji.
While this sounds fanciful, there is actually a deep spring (maybe 152m deep) that feeds the Biyō-sui & other springs.

https://twitter.com/camelliakyoto/status/1414027348433793025?s=20

The month-long Gion Matsuri will soon be drawing to a close.

Kagizen's (鍵善) 'Gion-mamori' (祇園まもり), a popular sweet at this time of year and forever in short supply, are emblazoned with Yasaka-jinja's crest and the words found on chimaki charms.
⬇️

https://twitter.com/camelliakyoto/status/1414027348433793025?s=20

A final sweet for Gion Matsuri, and one of the prettiest.
Kagizen's (鍵善) 'Gion-bayashi' (祇園囃子) is named after the unique music of the festival. The three colours of bean paste represent the instruments used to play Gion-bayashi: a drum (太鼓), flute (笛) & gong (鉦).
#Kyoto

https://twitter.com/camelliakyoto/status/1415851528489897985?s=20

Gion-bayashi's (祇園囃子) otherworldly "kon-chiki-kon" of flutes, drums, and gongs.
Throughout July you will hear the distinctive music of the festival piped relentlessly through speakers in the city arcades, shops and department stores.
⬇️

https://twitter.com/camelliakyoto/status/1415851528489897985?s=20

#祇園祭 #Kyoto

@narumi_sekihan

I thought I'd missed my chance to eat @narumi_sekihan's 'unagi-manju' (うなぎ万寿) yesterday, but Nao-san brought me one to work today😭❤️

#Japan #Kyoto #京都 #wagashi #和菓子 #doyōushinohi #土用丑の日 #うなぎ万寿 #鳴海餅本店

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More from @camelliakyoto

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto

May 28

🔔🪨😭THE GREAT BUDDHA'S WONDERS🐂💢👂

Kyōto was once home to the greatest statue of Buddha in all Japan.
4m taller than Tōdai-ji's Daibutsu, the statue stood in an immense hall in precincts now taken up by Toyokuni-jinja and Hōkō-ji (remnant of the original Buddha's home).

The great hall and last (vastly smaller) incarnation of Kyōto's Daibutsu are sadly lost, but within the neighbourhood (where once the temple precincts sprawled) are a series of wonders.
They include a great bell that brought down a ruling clan, an exploding cow, & a tomb of ears.

1) THE CHIMES OF DOOM🔔

Having seized control of the country after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu calmly waited for an excuse to destroy the rival Toyotomi clan.
His chance came with the forging of a new bell and an inscription that could be read as a threat.

Read 24 tweets

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto

Aug 21, 2023

🙊THE MONKEY'S SLIDE🛝
At first glance the teahouse garden appears to be made up of mostly moss, pine & camellia...but if you look more closely the borders are packed thick with dozens of varieties of plants.
One of the most beautiful at this time of year is the "Monkey's Slide".

More commonly known as crape myrtle (百日紅), older generations in Japan fondly call the tree 'saru suberi' (サルスベリ the "monkey's slide").
The bark of the tree is so smooth that even monkeys struggle to get a foothold!

#Kyoto #京都 #Japan #百日紅 #サルスベリ #IwataMonkeyPark

Crape (also crepe) myrtle gets its name from the appearance of its flowers, which look very much like crepe paper.
Blooming from mid-summer through to autumn, the flowers (commonly bright pink) are also known in Japan as 'hyakujitsukō' (百日紅 'red for 100 days').

#Japan #百日紅

Read 6 tweets

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto

Jun 19, 2023

🎨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

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)

twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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…

Read 8 tweets

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto

May 11, 2023

🚪😱HAUNTED GATES & DANCING CATS😼👻

It's been a while since I've done a #folklorethursday, so here's some local, rather less well-known tales.

Demizu was once home to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's lavish palace 'Jurakudai' (聚樂第), and the area has many strange wonders.
#Kyoto #京都

Kannon-ji's 'Gate of 100 Lashings' (観音寺百叩きの門) belonged originally to the prison at Fushimi Castle (伏見城). When the castle was dismantled the doorway was gifted to the temple🏯🚪🩸😰👋

The gate is just 1 of the '7 Wonders of Demizu' (出水の七不思議).
#Kyoto #京都 #出水

Before prisoners were set free they underwent a final punishment at the prison gate...a warning to stay on the straight & narrow.
They were lashed 100 times with a piece of split bamboo across the back. It was agonizing, & sometimes deadly!

Image thanks🙇‍♂️-bakumatsuya.com

Read 23 tweets

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto

May 10, 2023

'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.

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)✨

twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto

Apr 20, 2023

Astonishingly the temperature will soar close to 30 degrees today...the hottest day of the year so far😓

As this heat is a little unexpected we swooped on Ishidatami (石畳) for their famous matcha soft serve (抹茶ソフトクリーム). Fresh matcha is kneaded into the ice-cream🍵🍨🙌

Fresh matcha as an ingredient in cooking and baking tends to lose its flavour quickly, and so Ishidatami doesn't serve ice-cream older than 3 hours, preferring instead to make new batches throughout the day😮

#Kyoto #京都 #matcha #抹茶 #icecream #Ninenzaka #二年坂

Another favourite (though much pricier) way to cool down is with Oimatsu's (老松) cheerful 'natsukan-tō' (夏柑糖 'sugared Chinese citron')🍊🥰

#Kyoto #京都 #夏柑糖 #老松 #oimatsu #Japan #citron #chinesecitron #orange