Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
(79) Lacquer sake- jar.
Although in most households there were only two main meals, in many homes people
would have occasional snacks, and there were many varieties of sweet meats available.
Manju were steamed cakes made from sugar and rice-flour, yokan were slabs of bean-jelly
sweetened and with various flavorings. There were also many kinds of sweets made from
flavoredandcoloredwheat-flourandotheringredients,whichweremadeinmanydifferent
geometrical and representational shapes (such as flowers, leaves, etc.). These were often
eaten just before drinking the rather bitter powdered tea used in the tea ceremony, and also
with the stronger varieties of ordinary green tea.
Activity in almost every house went on until after dark, and there had to be equipment
for lighting. Candles were not really common until the middle of the Tokugawa period;
before that time, wax was scarce, because the wax tree, which provided the raw material
for most candles, was not under cultivation and bees-wax was virtually not used. Inferior
candles of pine-resin were sometimes to be found, but with the spread of the culture of the
wax tree, candles became the most usual form of lighting, superseding the oil-lamp. Their
wick was usually of paper. Oil-lamps consisted of a shallow basin of oil with a rush wick
floating in it and hanging over the side. Camellia seed oil and other vegetable oils were
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