alejandra hanashiro

In today’s Traditional Culture and Design class we prepared wagashi.

The term wagashi 和菓子 was settled at Meiji era to differentiate from Western confectionery. Wa refers to japan and gashi/kashi means sweet.

Wagashi had its origin in China’s wheat or rice flour deep fried sweets and then in the trade with Spain and Portugal that introduced sugar and flour.

The kind of wagashi we made is namagashi 生菓子. Generally these are offer at tea ceremony with matcha. Nama means raw, the ingredients used are mochi, yokan and anko so wagashi shops just prepare enough for the day sells.

It is a traditional craft recognised by Kyoto’s city, it’s an art that involves the 5 senses and evokes a particular moment of the season.

Today’s namagashi:

〰️ 蔦 Hedera green summer leaf

〰️ 批杷 japanese loquat

〰️ 露の宿 it’s summer season in Kyoto, you can tell by the water in the center of the flower.

Nagoshi no Harae 夏越の祓

The Edo Era machiya was established in 1781 as Kinshi Masamune’s brewery. It used Kyoto’s underground water from the Momonoi well 桃の井 that goes only 8 m deep, it’s temperature is 16˚C all year round. Kyoto is famous for it’s soft water, this is one of the reasons Kyoto’s sake is soft and sweet.

The cellar for brewing sake -tenmei gura 天明蔵- is built with 50 cm thick mortar walls. One of the keys for sake brewing is maintaining even temperature during the process, also it was good for preventing fires.

Bunraku Theater 文楽

Bunraku is one of the traditional performing arts of Japan. Its origin backs to the Edo Era in Osaka. Along with Noh and Kabuki it was designated World Intangible Heritage by UNESCO.

It is a collaborative kind of theater, which synchronizes narrative recitation, shamisen music and puppetry performance.

Each puppet Ningyou 人形 is operated by 3 performers. The master has his face uncovered and manages the puppets eyebrows, eyes (up down-to the sides) and right hand. The other 2 performers are covered in black clothes, including their faces. They are in charge of the legs and the left hand of the puppet.

The story is narrated by the Tayuu 太夫, who is the voice of every puppet, the public can distinguish whose voice he’s playing by the vocal expressions repertoire. Every Tayuu must have their own handwritten libretto Yukahon 床本 , which they personally copy from their Sensei. Each Yukahon is the script for 1 act, there are many Tayuus per play.

The Shamisen 三味線 player doesn’t use a music sheet on the stage, they must know the music by heart. Actually there are no printed music sheets, each shamisen player composes the music listening to other performers and under the advice of his Sensei. The shamisen for Bunraku is the broadest size one -futozao 太棹-. It also uses thicker strings and a larger bachi. This produces a heavier sound.

The narrator and shamisen player are set on a platform -Yuka 床- on the right side of the theater. They change in every scene, that’s why the revolving stage is used.

Yanagi Sori (1915-2011) was one of the leading industrial designers in the post war Japan. He teached at Kanazawa College of Art for 50 years and was the director of the Japan Folk Crafts Museum.

Kitaro Nishida (1870-1945) was a japanese philosopher contemporary to Daisetz Suzuki.

The museum was designed by Tadao Ando, it has a groove of philosophy and a garden of stairs. The inside of the building is like a labyrinth so visitors would wonder thinking in the way to go.

Fukumitsuya Sake Brewery 福光屋

Set in 1625 it is the oldest brewery from Kanazawa. They only produce Junmai 純米 Sake, this means they make it using rice and mineral water only, no additional distilled alcohol is added. Only 20% of the total production of Japan is Junmai Sake.

They proudly claim they use Hyakunensui 百年水 water, this means it goes at least 100 years slowly filtering through deep underground nourishing on minerals necessary for fermentation.

On the factory’s entrance they hang a new Shimenawa 注連縄 every year before making the year’s sake. This sacred rope is seen in Shrines, it’s a frontier between earth and the realm of goods. Also it is believed to exclude evil spirits.

Starting with brown rice the rice polishing ratio (RPR) is about 40-50%, this means rice is polished between 50-60% of outer grain. The outer layer of rice grain contains proteins, lipids and other components which could affect the flavor of sake.

Kosoyu, the public bath is amazing. It was rebuild in 2010 as reconstruction of the early 20th century Meiji era. The original one was the first one in Japan to have tiled bathing area. These were Kutani kilns. Stained glass was also used in the reconstruction.

Kaga onsen area is at the foot of Mt. Hakusan -one of Japan’s 3 Holy mountains-.

Kaga’s Kutani porcelain is internationally famous. The first pieces date back to Edo Era in Yamanaka. Colorful pictures and designs -Five Kutani colors: green, yellow, purple, dark blue and red.

Yamanaka’s laquerware is also famous in Japan. Everything there is about wood turning and urushi. You can see it everywhere, the utensils for eating are high quality and they have stores with modern design pieces. You can even customize your orders. Though the tourism in Kaga seemed to be pretty local most of these shops clients are foreigners.