Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Day 4483: Persimmon Harvest & Nova's gift.

"Happier Times": junk mail collage.

Want music?

Click: Aretha Franklin, DayDreamin'

2GN2S

( some eye candy from Japan?)

"Peak Persimmon Drying Season Drapes Orange Curtains"

It’s peak persimmon drying season in Japan right recently.

And for Wakayama prefecture, a major producer of persimmons, that means that roughly 70 farmers throughout the town of Katsuragi transform their farms into what is reminiscent of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates, a 2005 art installation of orange curtains hung through New York’s Central Park.

The reason early November is peak persimmon drying season

is because dried persimmons (hoshigaki) are a traditional food

that plays a central role in kagamimochi, a New Year’s decoration found in households across Japan. Kagamimochi is assembled by placing white mochi at the base. Next, dried skewered persimmons and, on top, a daidai orange. This structure is said to represent the Imperial Regalia of Japan: the mirror is the mochi, the jewel is the orange and the sword is the skewered persimmons.

a traditional year-end kagamimochi decoration (photo by makie sonoyama)

The dried persimmons is arranged on a skewer in a particular way.

A total of 10 of them are skewered with 6 in the middle and

2 on each side. This is important because, as in many cases, the Japanese love wordplay. Two (niko) on each end = smiles (niko niko) on the outside. Six (mutsu) in the middle = harmony (mutsumajiku) on the inside.

Persimmons are a special year-end for a number of reasons.

For one thing, they represent a good harvest, and allow the opportunity to be thankful for that. The persimmon tree is also a very long-living tree, hence symbolizing longevity. And lastly, persimmon (柿)

can also be written as 嘉来, meaning ‘happiness to come’.

More wordplay.

I delivered the gift to the birthday girl, a day late, but she did seem to like it. Eventually hung it in her room after hugging it for a while. It was fun to see her open it. If you missed the step-by-step, it is here.