What's "Kamei"?

In the middle of the Edo period, many artistic fields' activities became active, especially the Rinpa group including Korin Ogata. And then the cultural salon centered on them was formed. They valued artistic quality in the Heian dynasty period there. And Japanese sweets also came to make under the new aesthetic values. In that time, many Japanese sweets catalogs with illustrations appeared. Therefore it became common that not only their tastes and but also their appearances were enjoyed. And eventually they also enjoyed the sounds of the name Japanese sweets. They named after various Japanese classic dynastic styled literature; "Genji Monogatari (the Tale of Genji), "Kokin Wakashu (A Collection of Ancient and Modern Japanese Poetry) and so on. The kamei is the elegant names which named like this and it is very euphonious. In the kamei, the names which named after the emperors of Japan, court nobles and imperial families especially are the onmei.


As follows, the kamei is classified by what they named after. In addition to those, there are various classifies by Chinese classic literature, titles of noh songs daily commodities or clothing.


*plants*

For example, kankobai and natane-no-sato and so on. Kankobai is a kind of the name by ume trees, and blooms in the biting wind. Natane-no-sato is the name based on rape blossoms.

 Kankobai

(http://outdoor.geocities.jp/hpmonda/hanajyouhou_2010.html)

 Kankobai (Japanese sweet)

(http://moroeya.co.jp/archives/11)

 *animals*

For example, uzura-mochi and kujira-mochi. Uzura is quail, thickset bird and kujira is whale. These sweets are similar to quail and whale each other in the shape. And mochi means rice cake.

 Uzura

(http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A6%E3%82%BA%E3%83%A9)

Uzura-mochi

(http://blog.livedoor.jp/kikyou0123/archives/51136328.html)

*natural phenomena*

For example, harugasumi and usugori. Harugasumi means spring mist and usugori means thin ice originally. These sweets named by liking to those natural phenomena.

Harugasumi

(http://ayaya55a.exblog.jp/8445267/)

Usugori

(http://blog.goo.ne.jp/terumomo1955/e/4306d17911756638d8f590dbf25451a6)

*ingredients and recipes* 

For example, kuri-yokan and yuzu-manju. Kuri means chestnuts and yuzu means small citrus fruit originally. And yokan is  bars of sweet jellied azuki-bean paste, manju is buns with bean‐jam filling.

*sights*

For example, arashiyama and takao. Both Arashiyama and Takao is the famous sights of Kyoto.

*the famous persons' names*


For example, rikyu-manju and oribe-manju. Rikyu is the great tea master, Sen-no-Rikyu. Oribe is Japanese military commander who loves the tea ceremony.


*scenes*

For example, miyako-no-haru and hatsuhinode. Originally, miyako-no-haru means the spring in the city and hatsuhinode means the first sunrise of the year.