confectionery festival

I'm tired of conveying gloomy news. Things don't get better easily, but we are going about our daily business with trepidation in Tokyo or Yokohama.

The annual confectionery festival is held at Kitsumoto Jinja Shrine(橘本神社) in Wakayama Prefecture on April 3rd. It's a festival to pray for the prosperity of the confectionery industry and about 150 confectioners from around the country dedicate confections to the shrine.

Considering the current situation of the victims, we feel guilty about enjoyning ourselves. Most events were cancelled or postponed due to the quake, and I don't know whether or not this festival was held.

The shrine is dedicated to Tajimamori no Mikoto(田道間守命) who appears in an ancient chronicle named Kojiki(古事記) written in the eighth century.
According to the chronicle, Emperor Suinin ordered him to bring back a fruit that has power to confer immortality. When he brought back the fruit from ancient China, the emperor was already dead. The fruit is said to be Tachibana(橘, Citrus tachibana).

Kashi(菓子)  meant fruits and nuts in ancient times, but it means confectionery now. So he came to be enshrined as the god of confectionery.
On third Sunday of April, the annual confectionery festival is also held at Nakashima Jinja Shrine(中嶋神社) that is dedicated to Tajimamori no Mikoto.

I heard an old classmate of of mine will start Japanese sweets making classes from this June.
menu of her classes(Japanese version only)