Tea, Words & Tools
菓銘・かめい
Kamei poetic names of wagashi
The name given to a wagashi. A single name turns a sweet into a landscape.
Kamei is the name given to each individual wagashi. Names are drawn from waka and haiku poetry, season words, famous places, and the beauties of nature.
For example, Tatsuta-gawa for a kinton in the colors of autumn leaves, or Karakoromo for a design of irises. The moment you hear the name, a scene from an old poem or tale rises before you. Even for sweets of the same shape, change the name and the season and scene it expresses change too. That is the depth of wagashi.
At a tea gathering, one of the pleasures is for the guest to ask, “What is the name of the sweet?” Wagashi is savored not only with the eyes and the tongue, but with the ears as well.
