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@camelliakyoto@mastodon.social · 9 months ago

This rather wonderful looking dish is 'jabara konbu' (蛇腹昆布). Kelp (昆布 'konbu') is braided into a shape known as 'jabara' and then fried.

'Jabara' (昆布) can be translated as "snake's belly", and is used to describe things like the bellows of an accordion.

#Japan #Kyoto #zen #昆布 #jabara #kelp

Jabara is a shape or pattern likened to an accordion or the belly of a snake.

Jabara konbu...dried kelp braided into a shape likened to the belly of a snake.

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto@mastodon.social replied · 9 months ago

Tōrin-in celebrates Koshōgatsu during the 2nd half of January (小豆粥で初春を祝う会).

Guests are first served 'fuku-cha' (福茶), a tea made with the year's first drawn water.
Plums, resistant to the cold and a symbol of longevity, are eaten to cleanse the mouth and dispel any 'evil'.

#Torinin #Myoshinji #Japan #Kyoto

A selection of dried fruits and traditional sweets served with fuku-cha.

Torin-in's well-known pine grows in the courtyard garden...it is likened to a flying dragon.

Fuku-cha...a tea made from the first drawn well water of the year and plums. The plum is used to cleanse the mouth and 'dispel' any evil.

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto@mastodon.social replied · 9 months ago

At the heart of the Koshōgatsu meal is azuki rice gruel.

As Tōrin-in is a zen temple there are certain rituals to be observed before eating.
One of these is 'saba' (生飯), taking a few grains of rice (typically with right forefinger and thumb) as a symbolic 'offering to other beings'.

Each guest is offered about 7 cooked grains on a 'saba plate' (さば器), which are added to the gruel and eaten.

A monk later makes an offering of raw rice to the garden to complete the 'saba' ritual.

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto@mastodon.social replied · 9 months ago

At death beings are reborn into 1 of 6 Buddhist realms. One of these is called the 'Realm of Hungry Ghosts' (餓鬼道)...occupied by people corrupted by desire, greed, anger and ignorance in life.
The saba ritual originated as food set aside to ease the suffering of these ghosts.

Slowly these offerings were made not only to hungry ghosts, but 'life' in general (including birds, beasts and plants).
It is a message of thanks for the food consumed, and consideration for the world's hungry.

#Japan

Tales of Hungry Ghosts scroll... a national treasure depicting the realm of hungry ghosts (late Heian period).

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