日本語は英語の後に続きます。Japanese follows.
It’s May, with its fresh breeze. Reiwa’s first
tea gathering was held at the Gotoh Museum.
The spacious garden with fresh green leaves
was full of nature with bush warblers singing
and it was hard to believe it was Tokyo. As
the name suggests, “Fujimitei” used to be
able to see Mt. Fuji.
Thinking about such old days, we had Taneya’s
“hitoheni” with a bowl of matcha. “Hitoheni”
is a sweet made by wrapping tsubuan (sweet
bean paste) with shiroan (white bean paste)
dyed in light pink, and wrapping it with soft
rice cake. The word “hitoheni” is said to have
been used in “Heike Monogatari (The tale of
the Heike, early 13th century)” and
“Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness, 14th
century)”.
The flower was arranged by the school that
uses only the plants of Manyousyu (Briefly
written on Red and White Plum Blossoms).
It was a fun day like a time slip to the old days.
風薫る五月。令和元年初茶会は、五島美術館で。
新緑がまぶしい広大な庭園内は、鶯が鳴き
東京とは思えないほど自然に溢れている。
その名の通り、かつては富士山を望見できた
という富士見亭。そんな時代に思いをはせながら
たねやの「ひとへに」で薄茶一服。薄紅色に
染めた白餡で粒餡を包み、やわらかな餅で
くるんだ和菓子。「ひとへに」は、平家物語や
徒然草でも使用されていた古語だそうだ。
花も万葉集の植物のみ使用するという流派のもの。
古にタイムスリップしたような楽しい一日だった。