#Tag · bonfire.cafe

The eggplant 'oxen' is known as 'shōryō-ushi' (精霊牛 'spirit ox') and the cucumber 'horse' is known as 'shōryō-uma' (精霊馬 'spirit horse').
🥒🍆

Here is a great video about the 'spirit vegetables'
⬇️
https://youtu.be/0FoxADMvjBQ?si=Zya9sLAYvl1aYGOw

#Obon #お盆 #Japan

'Horse Cucumber' and 'Eggplant Oxen' for Obon.

Image thanks - https://shop.genkibatake.co.jp/blogs/column/obon?srsltid=AfmBOopIa18tQQ7TlItrKAr2FyPUqUYSei0e-iiYO2SVS9M8KJpIzKcy — 'Horse Cucumber' and 'Eggplant Oxen' for Obon. Image thanks - https://shop.genkibatake.co.jp/blogs/column/obon?srsltid=AfmBOopIa18tQQ7TlItrKAr2FyPUqUYSei0e-iiYO2SVS9M8KJpIzKcy

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto@mastodon.social · 5 months ago

As Obon draws to a close, there is a very particular way to say goodbye to your vegetable steeds.

📢DO NOT EAT THEM!

Spirits generally depart our world via water, so it is common to leave the cucumber and eggplant by rivers. You can also bury them or sprinkle in salt and throw away.

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto@mastodon.social replied · 5 months ago

The times are changing, and some ancestors will be traveling home in style at the end of Obon🤖🍆

#Japan #Obon #お盆

A Gundam made of eggplant, a nice twist on the 'Eggplant Oxen'.

Image thanks - https://x.com/freeter_ooya — A Gundam made of eggplant, a nice twist on the 'Eggplant Oxen'. Image thanks - https://x.com/freeter_ooya

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto@mastodon.social · 5 months ago

The eggplant 'oxen' is known as 'shōryō-ushi' (精霊牛 'spirit ox') and the cucumber 'horse' is known as 'shōryō-uma' (精霊馬 'spirit horse').
🥒🍆

Here is a great video about the 'spirit vegetables'
⬇️
https://youtu.be/0FoxADMvjBQ?si=Zya9sLAYvl1aYGOw

#Obon #お盆 #Japan

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto@mastodon.social replied · 5 months ago

So why a horse and ox?

Well it’s all to do with speed.

At the beginning of Obon ancestral spirits long to return as quickly as possible after a year's absence, so they travel by horse.
When Obon is over they are reluctant to depart, so they take the slower ox.

#Obon #お盆 #京都

4 media

Statues of horses are a common sight in shrines. They were once gifted as offerings (in some cases as specific prayers from rain or fine weather).

Ox statues are common in Tenmangu shrines. They are rubbed as a prayer (often people rub parts of the ox that corresponds to any illness or sickness they have on their own body).

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto@mastodon.social · 5 months ago

The eggplant 'oxen' is known as 'shōryō-ushi' (精霊牛 'spirit ox') and the cucumber 'horse' is known as 'shōryō-uma' (精霊馬 'spirit horse').
🥒🍆

Here is a great video about the 'spirit vegetables'
⬇️
https://youtu.be/0FoxADMvjBQ?si=Zya9sLAYvl1aYGOw

#Obon #お盆 #Japan

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto@mastodon.social · 5 months ago

At Obon cucumbers and eggplants, given small wooden legs, begin to appear at family altars and graves.

It is said the cucumber is a horse, racing the dead quickly back to this world.
The eggplant is an oxen, slowly but reliably carrying spirits back home.

#cucumber #eggplant #Obon #お盆

A 'cucumber horse' and 'eggplant ox'.

Image thanks - https://piroko0729.hatenablog.com/ — A 'cucumber horse' and 'eggplant ox'. Image thanks - https://piroko0729.hatenablog.com/

Camellia Tea Ceremony

@camelliakyoto@mastodon.social · 5 months ago

🥒AN UNUSUAL FORM OF TRANSPORTATION🍆

Invited by bells and flames, the spirits of the dead are currently holidaying in this world.

But how do ancestral spirits travel between realms?
Probably not how you imagine😂...

🥒 🐎 (arriving by 'spirit horse' 精霊馬)
🍆 🐂 (returning via 'spirit ox' 精霊牛)

#obon #お盆 #summer #eggplant #cucumber