2016/06/22

Somen Noodles Jizo

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Soomen Jizoo そうめん地蔵 Somen Noodles Jizo

. soomen 索麺 Somen noodles .
hiya soomen 冷索麺 cold Somen noodles in Summer
- Introduction -


source : matome.naver.jp/odai

Nagashi somen 流しそうめん "noodles flowing past"
a typical summer food to enjoy outside.
Small bundles of Somen noodles are send down a 'half-pipe' (usually made of bamboo) flowing with cold water from a nearby clean brook. You pick them up as they flow past and dip them into a small bowl with soy sauce and some herbs and spices for extra flavoring. The last bundle is usually colored, mostly pink.

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Once upon a time
the lord of Katsuyama castle 氏家勝山城 went to a pilgrimage to Nikko. After the important pilgrimage was over and he was on his way home, the Lord realized that he had not eaten a thing since the morning and suddenly, relaxed, he felt quite hungry.
Just then he passed the temple 満願寺 Mangan-Ji.
But the priest at the temple was quite a wicked one and served him only cold Somen noodles.
Word of this wicked priest had come to the Jizo from Nikko. He changed his form to a young monk with the blink of an eye came to the temple Mangan-Ji. He asked the priest: "Please give me some food!"
The priest smiled to himself "Today I can do a lot of wicked things!" and served the young monk some Somen noodles.
The young monk begun to eat, first 10 bowls, then 100 bowls and even 300 bowls with great pleasure and was still hungy. The old priest had his pride too and served ever more. But eventually his mean spirit was appeased and he got quite afraid of this young monk.
After he had finished all the bowls, the young monk said "Thank you so much for this meal!" Then he went home.



After he had left, the woodworkers from the valley came running up to the temple and shouted:
"Help help, our valley is suddenly full of Somen noodles!"
When the old mean priest went to the valley, he saw the river all white with the noodles floating downwhill.
Then he understood. The young monk must have been Jizo Bosatsu, trying to teach him a lesson.
And from this day on, he canged his mean ways and become a friendly, caring old priest.
The valley got the name そうめん谷 "Somen Valley" and the Jizo came to be called
soomen Jizo そうめん地蔵 The Somen Noodle Jizo.
- reference : city.tochigi-sakura.lg.jp xxx

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. 出流山 満願寺 - Izurusan Mangan-Ji .
栃木県栃木市出流町288 // 288 Izurumachi, Tochigi
Mangan-Ji temple is the seventeenth temple in the Bando (33 Kannon temples of kango region) pilgrimage circuit.


CLICK for more photos!

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そうめん地蔵 Somen Noodles Jizo
This legend tells about the origin of the ritual
Nikkoo Goohan-Shiki 日光強飯式 Nikko Gohanshiki
From Rinno-Ji in Nikko.

. Rinnoo-JI Goohanshiki 輪王寺強飯式 .

The story is just a bit different from the one told above.

About 400 years ago, at the temple 地蔵寺 Jizo-Ji, there was a very gentle kind priest. One day he was asked by 勝山城の左衛門尉 the lord from Katsuyama castle, Saemonnojo, to go to Nikko to Shrine 二荒山神社 Futaarayama Jinja on his behalf. The priest agreed cheerfully and was on his way.
Having finished his business, on his way home, he stopped near 滝尾別所 and suddenly felt very hungry. So went to a nearby temple and asked for a bowl of Somen noodles. The priest of the temple was a rather wicked person and asked him to come in, with a wicked smile on his face.

After some time the priest carried a huge tray to his visitor with a huge bowl of Somen.
"Since you asked for a bowl, we brought you one. Now you have to eat it all!"
The priest ate as much as he could, but still could not eat it all and begun to cry and apologized. But the wicked priest did not accept his apology.



Just in this moment a traveling monk appeared and asked:
"Please let me have one bowl of Somen noodles!"
The priest grinned from ear to ear and brought another huge bowl of Somen noodles.
But the travelilng monk just ate it all with no problem, slurping down the noodles. In no time the huge bowl was empty.
The priest got angry, had his subordinate priests buy all so Somen noodles in all of Nikko and offered them to the traveling monk. But the monk only smiled and slurped the huge portion of noodles in no time.
The priest and his subordinates were quite perplex and whowh - the traveling monk just vanished like smoke in the air. In his place stood a Jizo now. This was in fact the Jizo from the temple of the priest from Jizo-Ji.
Now the wicked priest apologized with tears in his eyes.
Then a woodworker came running past, calling out that the whole Western Valley was full of Somen floating down the river.



So the valley was called そうめん谷 Somen Valley and the Jizo became known as そうめん地蔵 Somen Jizo.
- reference : nihon.syoukoukai.com/modules -

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A legend involving Somen
from Nara, 大塔村 Oto village


Once upon a time a woodworker went to the forest for work. But he did not come home in the evening and his wife got worried. All the people from her family went out looking for him. The husband had carried some Abura-Age Tofu for his lunch, and a fox had gotten it from him. The fox then bewitched the man so he lost his way and wandered aimlessly in the forest.
When they found him he said he had eaten some Somen noodles, but looking closely he had only eaten earthworms.

. soba 蕎麦 buckwheat noodle legends .
They are quite similar, about foxes bewitching people.

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- Jizo Bosatsu 地蔵菩薩 - Introduction -

. Pilgrimages to Jizo Bosatsu 地蔵菩薩 - 地蔵霊場 Jizo Reijo .

. Legends about Jizo Bosatsu - 地蔵菩薩 .




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