Hello everyone. This time I will talk about angels I was passed down in Kyoto since ancient times.
Kiyomizu-dera Temple is one of the most popular spots in Kyoto. But did you know that the Higashiyama area, where Kiyomizudera is located, has a sad but heartwarming history?
One thousand years ago, Kyoto was much smaller than today, and the fields east of the Kamogawa River stretched out.
It is said that when people go to Heaven in the town, their bodies are carried across the Kamogawa River to Toribeno, just south of Kiyomizu-dera Temple, where they are buried.
On the map, there is a straight road from Kamogawa to Kiyomizudera, but it becomes a steep slope from around the arrow.
In the old days, carts were used to transport bodies. However, it is said that many people left their bodies in front of the slope because it was challenging to climb the hill.
That place became the present-day Rokuro-cho, and although it is now called Rokuro-cho, it used to be called Skull-cho, which means the town of Angels. It seems that it was attached because the human soul was scattered.
Around the Rokuro-cho town has temples connected to the underworld, such as Rokudochinko-ji Temple, which has a well leading to Heaven.
And there was a candy store in this area.
One day, a woman came to buy candy every night with a one-mon coin in her hand.
In the morning, when the shopkeeper looked inside the coin box, he found that the one-mon coin was missing, and instead, it contained a leaf of a tree (a flower offered at a grave).
The shopkeeper, who thought it was strange, followed the woman that night.
Then the woman suddenly disappeared in front of the cemetery in Toribeno.
When the owner examines the grave near where the woman disappeared, he hears a baby crying inside. Oh, my god! A baby with candy in its mouth came out.
Yes, this woman was a woman who went to Heaven in the town and was buried in Toribeno, and she had a baby in her belly, and the baby was alive. A mother who could not breastfeed became an angel out of love for her child, and every night she bought candy and gave it to her child.
Since then, this candy has continued in Kyoto for nearly 500 years as an “angel parenting candy.”
And this is angel parenting candy.
What kind of taste do you imagine?
The color is brown, and it becomes a large grain that is relatively rugged.
At first, I thought it looked lovely, but when I tried it, it was a different story!
It was lovely and gentle. It’s a taste you won’t get tired of, even if you constantly lick it.
It made me feel sad, kind, and warm, like an angel’s love for my child.
As an aside, it seems that the baby who came out of this grave became the model of GeGeGe no Kitaro, the main character of a very famous anime in Japan.
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