May 21 – 小満 Shouman

Welcome to the series of posts made in collaboration with Kintoki sweets and ITSUMO Life exploring Japanese culture and seasonal observations.

Today we are going to explore 小満 Shouman , the 8th micro season in the 二十四節季 24 Sekki solar calendar.

The literal translation for Shouman is a little funny, it means “a small full” and it’s a time we start to notice the beginning of small fruit starting to grow on the trees, and tiny ears of wheat and rice starting to fill in the cereal crops. New successions of flowering plants are also “filling in” with the longer and warmer sunlight. One of the flowers that are notable for this time of the year in Japan is iris.

For celebrating shouman today, Sen @kintokisweets made Ayame-mochi; a classic Japanese confection inspired by the beautiful purple irises. Made with a sweet mixture of white bean paste and purple ube yam nerikiri fondant using all natural colouring derived from the purple and orange yams with a hint of green from matcha.

Our choice of plate for serving Sen’s ayame-mochi is “Dishes plate” by Yumiko Iihoshi Porcelain. The colour of sand beige glaze is soft and complimentary not only to the colourful sweets but also to many other bright coloured ingredients such as purple cabbage, purple radishes and vibrant colours of swiss chard, and so on. Especially with its white rim, this plate frames your food like a painting and it adds an attractive scenery to your dining experiences. The tiny silver fork used here is a “Hime fork” by Azmaya. Selecting the right type of cutlery is just as important to dishes in order to fully appreciate the flavour. This small dessert fork is a must-have item for our precious tea times.

With nice weather being forecasted for the long weekend we encourage you to take a “small fill” of nature. See if you can spot the little cherry fruits starting to form on the trees or the grass seeds starting to take shape… Hope you discover a sense of well-being just like how ancient people used to anticipate healthy growth and harvest this time of the year.

Until our next exploration,
ITSUMO & Kintoki Sweets