Showing posts with label plum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plum. Show all posts

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Fukura Tenmangu


Fukura is a district of Usuki, and as I walked into town I stopped in at Fukura Tenmangu. Like quite a few shrines it was actually a temple until the Meiji Period when many temples were converted to shrines by the government.


Being a Tenmangu it features a statue of an ox as well as the usual komainu etc. There are several sub shrines within the grounds.


It seems to be a very popular shrine offering a full range of ceremonies and amulets etc as well as a shrine to a red cat. Red Cat was the nickname of a successful local merchant and petitioners at the shrine pray for business success.


I was there at the end of February and the plum blossoms were in bloom. Tebmangu shrines often have plum trees because of poems Sugawara Michizane wrote about them, in the time before plum blossoms were supplanted by cherry blossoms in the Japanese imagination....

Yuzukosho (yuzu pepper) is a signature product from Usuki & Hita

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Plum blossom viewing

walk3302

Woke up to a few centimeters of of snow this morning so took the opportunity to go for a short one hour walk......

walk3272

Tomorrow I will post more of the walk, but for today here are the plum blossoms.

walk3305

I prefer the plum blossoms to the cherry blossoms..... as do the Chinese apparently.

walk3298

The harbinger of spring...............

walk3285

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Umeboshi,... an acquired taste

umeboshi

Umeboshi, pickled plums, can most often be found in bentos, where a single plum is placed in the center of the rice to look like the Japanese flag.

After picking when ripe in June, the plums are mixed with salt and shiso leaves (to give the color) and packed with a weight on top.

Later the pickled plums are sun dried, like these of my neighbors in the photo above.

Actually Ume are not true plums, being closer to apricots.

Not fond of umeboshi myself, though umeboshi-flavored candy is OK.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Spring has sprung!

lens test 4014

Though the official start of spring, Setsubun, was a few weeks ago, for me the sign that spring is here is the arrival of the plum blossoms.

lens test 4010

Like the Chinese, I find the plum blossom more enchanting and exciting than the cherry blossom.

lens test 4013

We have quite a few plum trees in the area...and at least they grow fruit, which is more than can be said for the cherry blossom.