The annual festival
for “the God of Tea” has come this year too. You may think “A
festival? For the god of tea??”
There is a small
shrine called “Sukunahikona Jinja” a at a business district in Osaka. It
is dubbed as “Shinno san”, which means “Mr. Shnnong”. He was regarded as the
one who first tasted tea. The place is
enshrined both “a God of Japanese medicine ‘Sukunahikona ‘” and “the Father of
Chinese medicine and tea ‘Shennong’”. As you know, tea was considered to be one
of medicine in the old time. The area is still known as the
medicine district because some headquarters or branches of well-known
pharmaceutical companies are located. Since tea is not regarded as a medicine
anymore, we cannot find any remnants of tea such as tea-related
archives or goods.
Every year, “Shinno Festival” is
held on Nov 22nd and 23rd at the shrine. Lots of people visit
there during the festival to pray for their health, but most of them don’t know
the connection with tea. However, I want to say that this shrine and the festival
is for the god of tea.
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| frm 2013 |
