July in Kyoto means the Gion Festival of Yasaka Shrine. Spectacular floats color the neighborhoods once more, and shrine activity reaches a fever pitch. When local people hear the distinctive “konkonchikichin” sounds of festival music, they know the rainy season is ending and it’s time to prepare for the intense summer heat. In honor of Gion Festival’s nickname, the “Conger Eel Festival” (Hamo Matsuri), our course at Kyoto Wakuden features such dishes as hamo sushi and stewed gourd served cold.
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“Evening in Nara, when wind rustles the oak trees by the brook, water ablutions are the only sign it’s still summer!” This thirteenth-century poem conveys a sense of freshness. The water purification rites of the sixth month brought cool back then. These days, summer really begins from now. The June course at Kyoto Wakuden brings you cuisine that imparts the feeling of summer to the five senses: squid and sea urchin, parboiled pike conger, charcoal-grilled Kyoto kamo-nasu, and more.
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Fresh green leaves mean it’s time for the Aoi Matsuri: a procession of five-hundred people winding through the Kyoto streets, as if out of an ancient picture scroll. For our May course, we offer a hot pot with Japanese peppercorn flowers (hana sansho) and either Tango surf clam (torigai) or Wagyu beef. Try also the season’s first bonito and a chilled bowl full of hairy crab, Kyoto eggplant (kamonasu), and a plant called water shield (junsai). We invite you to experience the aroma and refreshment of these dishes.
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