Summer is here — and with it comes the festival of Tanabata, celebrated every year on the 7th day of the 7th month.
There are lots of different regional traditions for this day but all involve colourful decorations, especially long streamers and strips of paper hung from bamboo; getting dressed up in yukata (light summer kimono); and, of course, special foods.
In Kanazawa, the high-end Asadaya ryotei/ryokan marks Tanabata by making a festive version of the oshizushi (pressed sushi) that is so popular along the Japan Sea coast.
It's sasa-zushi — wrapped in fragrant sasa bamboo leaves — and it's made in small individual portions decorated in two ways: one with sake (salmon), the other with tai (snapper). Plus some lotus root (with lurid dye), "birds" of kinome (sansho leaf), and stars of gold leaf, a Kanazawa specialty.
Note: the shrine in the photo at the top is Tsurugaoka Hachimangu (in Kamakura). It has no connection with Kanazawa or Asadaya. I just liked the Tanabata decorations. Here are a few more:
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