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😉
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💦✨
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.
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.
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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
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.
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💸HAPPY SHICHIFUKUJIN DAY✨
Today is 'Shichifukujin-no-hi' (七福神の日), a day dedicated to the '7 Gods of Fortune'. Mostly this is to do with wordplay.
One reading of July 27th could be...7 = 'shichi' シチ / 2 = 'fu' フ / 9 'ku' = ク. Together = 'shichifuku' (七福). #七福神の日
In the Muromachi period the first pilgrimage to the Seven Gods of Fortune began in Kyōto. From here similar pilgrimages popped up all across Japan.
The Kyōto Shichifukujin Mairi (都七福神まいり) is typically undertaken at the New Year, or on the 7th day of the month. #Japan#京都
1) 🎣EBISU-JINJA (えびす神社)🐟
Ebisu (恵比寿) is the god of business prosperity, successful crops and abundance. He is patron of fishermen (he's typically depicted in a fisherman costume, with fishing rod & large fish) and workmen, & is possibly the most popular of the 7 gods.
at the end of autumn
this badger poses
as a Buddha...
秋のくれ仏に化る狸かな
-与謝蕪村 1716-84.
Tanuki (狸 'Raccoon Dogs') are real, if somewhat elusive, animals, that have featured prominently in folktales throughout the centuries. #folklore#Japan
Just like kitsune (狐) and bakeneko (化け猫), tanuki have the ability to shape-shift. One of the first passages to mention tanuki describes them transforming into humans and singing songs during the reign of Empress Suiko (推古天皇 554-628). #Kyoto#狐#化け猫#Japan#folklore
Tanuki (狸) have 8 special traits that bring good fortune🎱🙌🍀
(1) 笠 straw hat = prepared against bad weather & trouble (2) 大腹 big belly = level-headedness (3) 尾 tail = perseverance (4) 通 promissory note = honesty (5) 丸い目 big eyes = discernment & good decisions
July 26th is known as 'Yūrei-no-hi' (幽霊の日 'Ghost Day'). On this date in 1825 the famous play 'Tōkaidō Yotsuya Kaidan' (東海道四谷怪談) premiered. It is arguably Japan's most famous ghost story, telling of Oiwa's (お岩さ) supernatural revenge. #Yūreinohi#幽霊の日#Japan
Kyōto has its fair share of ghost stories, but I'll leave you in the hands of these wonderful people to tell you all about Edo's Oiwa (お岩さ).
👻THE GHOST & THE CANDY STORE🍬
In celebration of 'Yūrei-no-hi', here's Kyōto most famous ghost story.
Established in 1599, the candy shop Minato-ya Yūrei Kosodate-ame Honpo (みなとや幽霊子育て飴本舗) is thought to be the store featured in the legend of the 'Child-rearing Ghost'.
evening gloom-
a fawn's spots
on the lily
夕闇やかのこ斑のゆりの花
-Issa (小林一茶), 1812.
Seiyō-san's (青洋) latest creation is a beautiful, lily-inspired sweet called 'sōryō' (爽涼), which simply means 'refreshing cool'. #Japan#Kyoto
The slightly watercolour quality of the sweet brings to mind Claude Monet's (1840–1926) 'Water Lilies'. Astonishingly, many of these paintings were created while Monet suffered from cataracts!
After a long hiatus the city's monthly markets are making a return in time for the summer holidays.
Kitano Tenmangū's (北野天満宮) 'Tenjin-san' (天神さん) is held on the 25th of each month. Hundreds of stalls surround the shrine, selling everything from antiques to vegetables😊
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.
'Far away, in the country village of Katsura, the reflection of the moon upon the water is clear and tranquil.'
It was this line from Murasaki Shikibu's 'The Tale of Genji' (源氏物語) that inspired Prince Hachijō Toshihito to create Katsura Rikyū. #Japan
Beginning as little more than 'a teahouse in the melon patch', Prince Hachijō Toshihito (八条宮 智仁親王 1579–1629) and his son poured what wealth they had into building Katsura Detached Villa (桂離宮), recreating the aesthetics of the Heian period and 'The Tale of Genji'. #Kyoto
Katsura Rikyū (桂離宮) stands on the west bank of the Katsura-gawa, sprawling over 70,000 square metres.
Since ancient times this area has been considered the perfect moon-viewing spot, and in the Heian period 'rustic' villas of the aristocracy were constructed beside the river.