🌞🥤'RIKKA' REFRESHMENTS🌊🏖️
'Rikka' (立夏) is the beginning of summer in the traditional calendar. It's marked by 'frogs singing' (蛙始鳴 May 5th-9th), 'worms surfacing' (蚯蚓出 10th-14th), bamboo shoots sprouting (竹笋生 15th-20th), and more sweets than you can shake a stick at🙌
#立夏 #rikka #summer
After the shock of losing both the emperor and its status as capital in 1868, Kyōto embarked on a series of prestige projects to help revive trade, tourism and its damaged ego.
Heian Jingū, the Lake Biwa Canal, the geisha dances and the Jidai Matsuri were all born at this time.
Kameya Yoshinaga (亀屋良長) has done the impossible and perfectly captured the blue skies and cotton puff clouds of May in sweet form☺️
The wonderful 'hikōki-gumo' (ひこうき雲)✨
summer kimonos
the color of blue sky...
morning pilgrimage
帷子の青空色や朝参り
-Issa, 1822.
The store's survival is credited to a small shrine called Takenobu-jinja (武信神社)
In the Edo period Kameya Yoshinaga (亀屋良長) fell on hard times and came close to shutting down.
But then a white-bearded man visited their shop...
The old man (god of Takenobu-jinja) shared a recipe for 'kōrimochi' (氷餅), a type of mochi made with extra water, moulded into rectangular blocks, tied with straw and left outside on cold days to freeze dry.
Thanks to this sweet, popular with tea masters, the store flourished.
Camellia Tea Ceremony
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