Camellia Tea CeremonyNov 10

🍶😵‍💫THE TEMPLE OF ABSTINENCE🙏✨

Jizō-in (地蔵院) hasn't survived the ravages of time well, but it has some extraordinary tales to tell.
Many know the tiny temple as 'Tsubaki-dera' (椿寺) after a camellia shrub that was smuggled from a Korean castle and later gifted by a warlord.

#Jizoin #地蔵院 #Kyoto #京都

Show threadCamellia Tea CeremonyNov 10
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉) gifted the 'goshiki yaechiri tsubaki' (五色八重散椿) to the temple following the 'Grand Kitano Tea Ceremony' (北野大茶湯) in 1587.
The original tree perished (the wood now preserved), but the current camellia is its 120 year old descendant.
#Kyoto #京都
Show threadCamellia Tea CeremonyNov 10

✨goshiki (五色)= 'multicoloured'
✨yae (八重)= 'multilayered'
✨chiri (散)= 'shedding petals'
✨tsubaki (椿)= 'camellia'

Samurai mostly considered camellia unlucky as the flower heads typically dropped whole (like a beheading), but this species drop their petals one at a time🙌

Show threadCamellia Tea CeremonyNov 10
It's thought that the daimyō Katō Kiyomasa (加藤清正 1562-1611) brought the bush back to Japan from the Korean mainland following a campaign against Urusan Castle (蔚山城の戦い) some time around 1596.
He presented it to Toyotomi who had it planted first at Kitano Tenmangū.
#Kyoto
Show threadCamellia Tea Ceremony

🫴🍑
It's believed that drinking an infusion of camellia leaves helps to alleviate hemorrhoids🥹✨

Because it drops its petals one by one this species is also known as 'long life camellia' (長命椿) and 'scattering camellia' (散り椿).
#Japan #camellias

Nov 10 at 6:26amWeb
Show threadCamellia Tea CeremonyNov 11

🍑NETHER REGION NEEDS🍇

Let's do a little detour to deal with those pesky hemorrhoids.

In Kyōto, no matter your material, physical or spiritual needs, there will be a god waiting to hear your prayers...and naturally there is a one to take care of 'jikaku' (痔核)😮
#hemorrhoids

Show threadCamellia Tea CeremonyNov 11

Iwato Myōken-gū (岩戸妙見宮), a shrine to the north west of the city, is home to 'Shūzan Jiun Reijin' (秋山自雲霊神), a god said to cure hemorrhoids and other problems of the lower body (particularly around the 🍑).

The story of this deity begins in Edo...
#Japan #Kyoto #Edo #江戸

Show threadCamellia Tea CeremonyNov 11
Okada Magōemon (岡田孫右衛門) was a clerk at a saké store in Edo's Shinkawa neighbourhood (江戸/新川の酒問屋).
For 7 years he suffered from unimaginably painful hemorrhoids, and in 1744 eventually died from complications😱😨
Show threadCamellia Tea CeremonyNov 11
Whilst sick Okada often visited the Nichiren temple of Honshō-ji (本性寺) to pray. Feeling death approaching, he vowed to become a protector for those suffering from similar ailments.
He was thus enshrined at the temple as a guardian of 'below-the-waist illnesses'.
#Japan #本性寺
Show threadCamellia Tea CeremonyNov 11
Deified as Shūzan Jiun Reijin (秋山自雲霊神), Okada's small shrine proved so popular that other Nichiren temples spread his 'cult' from from Edo to Settsu, and then on to Kyōto.
Hirota-jinja (広田神社) in Nishinomiya became famed as a 'healing centre' for hemorrhoids in Edo times.
Show threadCamellia Tea CeremonyNov 11
Through the Nichiren sect the 'hemorrhoid god' reached a large audience (he remained popular until the development of modern medicines).
In Kyōto 'Shūzan Jiun Reijin' found a home at Enjō-ji (圓成寺), a temple founded in 1630 by Nichinin (日任), 21st abbot of Honman-ji (本満寺).
Show threadCamellia Tea CeremonyNov 11

🍻QUITTING DRINK🥤

A rather odd belief exists that if you offer water at the grave of Amanoya Rihee (天野屋利兵衛 1661-1733) at Jizō-in and then take a sip you will become averse to alcohol.
It is unclear if Rihee hated drinking in life or if he was a recovering alcoholic🤔
#folklore #Kyoto

Show threadCamellia Tea CeremonyNov 11
Amanoya provided the '47 Ronin' (四十七士) with money and weapons for their revenge on Kira Yoshinaka (吉良義央) in 1702.
Originally a town administrator in Ōsaka, in 1695 Amanoya was dismissed and so headed for Kyōto, where he began to trade with Okayama and Kumamoto Provinces.
Show threadCamellia Tea CeremonyNov 11
Very little is actually known about Amanoya, and he is often confused with the merchant Wataya Zenemon (綿屋善右 衛門好時), purveyor to Ako Domain.
A rumor persists that Amanoya took the tonsure at Jizō-in and practiced tea ceremony here as Matsunaga Dosai (松永士斎).
#Kyoto
Show threadscrewlispNov 11
@camelliakyoto
truth seems stranger than fiction!
Show threadAlexander Goeres 𒀯Nov 11
@Camellia Tea Ceremony very beautiful. but a whole temple dedicated to  hemorrhoids?