Minazuki: Wishing Upon a Dessert

Glass Food and Craft Sasaki Shoko

Glass plates by Sasaki Shoko in our shop ->

Leave it to the Japanese to come up with the most appropriate names for the months of the year. June is Minazuki, which literally means “the month of water.” This is the time of year when the rice paddy fields are filled with water, and also of relentless downpours because this is prime rainy season in Japan.

With tea classes cancelled until at least autumn, my desperation for Japanese sweets has reached new heights and so I embarked on making “Minazuki,” a delicious rice cake sweet named after the month.

Minazuki dessert on a glass plate by Sasaki Shoko. The triangle shape refers to the traditional thatched ice house where natural ice was stored. Summer sweets evoke a sense of coolness.

I first tasted Minazuki when visiting the Chado Research Center in Kyoto in 2015, where the museum entry fee included a bowl of matcha tea and a seasonal sweet. I’m terrible at remembering the times when I traveled to various places, but because I was served Minazuki, I know it was in June. I later also learned that people in Kyoto eat this triangular mochi dessert topped with red beans cooked in sugar often during the month of June.

A mochi topped with azuki red beans sounds relatively simple to make, but there is that stupid perfectionist in me that whispered, “but if you’re making Minazuki, the azuki can’t come from a can, it’s got to be those big Dainagon azuki.” In addition, the whisper continued: “Add some kudzu in the mochi to make it certainly Kyoto style (from my provincial Tokyoite perspective, kudzu is a very Kyoto ingredient).

With all these wild ambitions, I cooked over two days to make the sweet.  Alas, the red beans didn’t turn out quite as I had hoped because their skins broke. Ideally, they are supposed to be intact and beautifully plump. I discovered that Azuki cooking is an art, like making the perfect Canelés de Bordeaux. Cutting this delicious sticky thing was a challenge by itself, but I persevered!

Minazuki on a petal edged dessert plate by Sasaki Shoko.

Minazuki is eaten especially in conjunction with the day of the summer passage cleansing ritual known as “Nagoshi no harae” on June 30th. The ritual is carried out with the hope of being disease-free and to ward off disaster and misfortune. And since such a wish can be made by making and eating a humble sweet, I virtually send you all Minazuki, to wish you good health for the rest of this difficult year.

New Wood-Fired Porcelain by Shumpei Yamaki for Your Summer Evenings

Ceramics Food and Craft Shumpei Yamaki

New work by Shumpei Yamaki in our shop->

I will never forget the first time I went berry picking with my host family in British Columbia in the summer as a high school exchange student. Back then in the late 1980s, I was only familiar with strawberries, which to me was a winter fruit as they are grown in greenhouses in Japan. But that Canadian summer, there were so many different kinds of berries to pick and eat. There was plenty of time for these berry escapades as daylight stretched way past 9 o’clock in the evening. I remember that I was very happy then, and ever since, berries lift my spirits up.

Homemade blueberry ice cream in wood-fired porcelain sake cups by Shumpei Yamaki. Wood-fired porcelain has subtle and beautiful colors of gray, light green and peach.

As the weather warms and my favorite summer fruits and vegetables start appearing on the dining table, my eyes seek refuge from the heat in the cool of porcelain ceramics, woven bamboo, and hues of blue, green, and purple.

In hot weather, my eyes seek refuge in cool colored tableware

Tea master Sen no Rikyu’s Seven Precepts, which is basically a code on organizing lovely and memorable gatherings, includes this piece of advice: “In the summer, provide a sense of coolness.” For example, in summer tea preparations, a water jar may be covered in freshly washed leaf with dews remaining on top, or a tea bowl may be brought in filled with water to convey a feeling of coolness. Even in our currently stress-filled pandemic world, I have found that taking the time to select utensils and set a seasonal table for my husband and myself provided a sense of calm and place.

Featuring water creates a sense of coolness on the table.
Shumpei Yamaki’s kiln after firing in Spring 2020. As with last time, Shumpei omitted the use of pyrometric cones and thermometer to create an environment for flow state
(Photo Courtesy of Shumpei Yamaki)

And because I love the combination of Shumpei Yamaki’s clean forms in white clay, gray, green, blue, and peach colors created by the fire and ash, I specifically asked him for some porcelain work this summer, in addition to his usual stoneware work. I’m delighted to share these glacial works by Shumpei with you, and hope that you’ll take the time to look at photos of them taken at different angles so that you can discover the subtle and amazing complexities that the wood-firing process can give to a porcelain’s surface.

Announcement of Closure of Entoten’s Physical Gallery

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I’m saddened today to inform you that the alignment of some dark and troubling stars in the Entoten universe during the Covid-19 Pandemic has caused serious financial stress and uncertainty in my business operations. In order to ensure the continuing survival of my online gallery, I have decided to close my physical gallery in San Diego.

This is a bittersweet decision, especially after having several successful shows and workshops that I felt I was on track to turning the gallery into a place that I envisioned: a place where people could meet beautiful crafts and to experience them being made and used. But with Covid-19, this is not the time for such in-person experiences and I will have to wait until when it is safe and people feel comfortable to do so.

When that future arrives, I will be doing pop-up shows and workshops in San Diego and beyond. In the meantime, my online store is operating as usual and I’m shipping orders in a speedy manner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support and hope that you are all able to enjoy the arrival of summer.