Showing posts with label kintaro ame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kintaro ame. Show all posts

Thursday, January 05, 2006

kintaro ame

Have you ever seen this kind of candy? In Japan, it is called "Kintaro ame".

Kintaro (Golden Boy) is a folklore hero. Kintaro ame (candy) has been around since the Edo period.

It is made by layering different colored pieces of candy into a cylindrical face. If you have done crafts with polymer clay (FIMO), you'll know this as making a cane. Anyway, no matter how many times you slice it. The face will always appear. I got this as a gift when I went to buy something at a store. The face isn't of Kintaro, but of a dog since it is the Year of the Dog.

I also got an O-mikuji with the candy. O-mikuji are slips of paper which tell your fortune. These are usually found at shrines and temples. There are different levels of luck from Daikichi = great blessing to Daikyo = great curse.

If your o-mikuji is bad, you should tie it to a pine tree. Pine tree has a play on words, pine means "matsu", "matsu" also means to wait. By tying your bad luck fortune to a matsu (pine tree), the bad luck will "wait" by the tree instead of attaching itself to you. The o-mikuji I got with the candy was kichi = blessing. :)