Jelly strip (tokoroten)

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Jelly Strips, gelidium jelly (tokoroten)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: All Summer
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

Cold Jelly Stripes, gelidium jelly, tokoroten, 心太, 心天 (ところてん)
..... tokoroten 石花菜（ところてん）

"big heart" kokorobuto こころぶと
"heart and heaven", kokoroten こころてん


pushing out the jelly, kokoroten tsuki 心太突き（ところてんつき）

extruding tokoroten jelly


This low-calorie food made of the seaweed called "tengusa 天草" is a godsent for dieting people! It is high in vegetable proteins but low in calories. Tengusa is harvested by the womenfolk from rocks along the shorelines of Japan. After boiling, it gets its jelly-like quality.
Maybe the old Chinese food called "tama abura" was another form of a "seaweed that makes gel". In the Heian period, this was a delicacy for the aristocracy.

Gabi Greve
jello
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'Tokoroten'
is a dish of thin translucent jelly strips. It is served cold and eaten with vinegar-based dressing. It is a snack rather than a meal.

Agar agar, aka Kanten
Tokoroten is made from agar, also known as kanten. Agar contains a substantial amount of dietary fiber and no calories. Unlike gelatin, agar does not contain animal protein.

Tengusa
Agar is made from some species of marine plant. They are called tengusa in Japanese.

'Mitsumame'
is a kind of dessert made of agar cubes instead of strips and eaten with sweet syrup instead of sour vinegar.
© kimoto.cc






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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way


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HAIKU

小盥や不二の上なる心太
ko-darai ya fuji no ue naru tokoroten

little tub--
on top of Mount Fuji
cold jelly

Issa
Tr. David Lanoue

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tokoroten susutte jimon jito kana

Rogetsu (Tr. Blyth

Sucking up the gelidium jelly,
I ask myself questions,
And answer them.

Blyth reports that Rogetsu was "greatly respected in the haiku world after the death of Shiki."(Note: p. 150, A History of HAIKU, Volume Two) In the same small section he introduces this tokoroten haiku but does not offer any comments. One can speculate almost anything as to what Rogetsu wished to say in this poem. What is certain is that he would not have used such a phrase as jimon jito without meaning some kind of a metaphor, or hidden meaning. Jimon jito is rather a peculiar phrase to use in haiku, especially in Rogetsu's time. He therefore must have used it deliberately. It can mean several things.

Firstly, Rogetsu may be depicting a kind of his loneliness whereby he had to deal with certain difficult (philosophical) questions all alone as he is not in the company of those with whom he could discuss them. It can mean that he was casting a doubt on the way he was living. The comical juxtaposition of tokoroten and jimon jito indicates a degree of self-mockery and a faint self-pity about it.

The reason why Blyth chose this haiku seems almost self-evident. It is the Zen-like atmosphere and scene which permeate this haiku. It is also the kind of un-expected moment (the act of eating tokoroten) when Rogetsu seemed to tackle some question, when satori may or may not happen. I am always cautious whenever critics, including Blyth, start talking about Zen in relation to haiku.

Comment by Susumu Takiguchi, WHR 2002


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Related words

***** Jelly Bean Cake (mizu-yookan)

***** Seaweed (kaisoo)

***** Food from Japan (washoku)


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