Sigh, I knew this day would come. In my defense, other projects/projects/psychotic-earthquakes-people-quaintly-include-under-the-term-"life" have been calling me aside. (I've never used 8 hyphens in a sentence before -- awright, personal best!) So, let's see what I can rustle up for this month tonight.... (thumbs through the internet a bit)... amacha? Sure, why not!
Definition
It's sweet tea (so the kanji sound like they're are probably 甘and 茶) -- but not, you know "sweet tea." (Though both are diuretics.) Well, you know stevia, right? Funny tasting stuff, meant to be this awe-inspiring, calorie-free, low glycemic sweetener, but when you get it, you're first reaction is to be repelled by how un-sugar like it is? Well, culturally-biased palette rant aside, the plant amacha comes from sounds like the old-time Japanese version of stevia, including there being liquid and leaf forms.
But in amacha's case, it comes from a species of hydrangea.
The Plant
Yup. Hydrangea tea. Not exactly two words I would have put together. Then again, as with many topics, my knowledge of edible botanicals probably would have a hard time stretching out to fill a tablespoon, so, yeah... Anyways, I found a (super long) scientific name for the amacha hydrangea (which likes to grow on mountains and itself is called amacha) is Hydrangea macrophylla Seringe var. thunbergii (Siebold) Makino (Saxifragaceae.) I've also seen it shortened to just Hydrangea thunbergii. But there, now we all know it! (Of course, I've also seen it that the type of hydrangea is Hydrangea macrophylla var. serrata, so yeah. Maybe they're synonymous... Botany!)
So where's the sweet come from? A chemical an aspiring scientist will find in the leaves, that (an)other(s) scientist(s) have named phyllodulcin. To get the leaves to make this chemical though, you need to create a reaction -- that is, you need to either ferment them or squish them up. (Hooray for science!) On a related note, I've seen one book that says leaves prepped to be amacha are fermented, and a book that says they're dried. They might be disagreeing, they might be agreeing. Only the editors themselves may truly know.
Why Do People Make It?
People who follow a religion (cult?) called Gedatsu-kai make it because of a ritual that involves pouring it over items/places thought to have unclean spirits connected to them so that the spirits will drink it and become clean. One example is memorial tablets/plaques of relatives. Looks like the name for this ritual is amacha kuyō.
A ritual that is completely different (as far as I can tell) in its purpose is kanbutsu, which takes place on Buddha's birthday (that's April 8 for those of us who don't know, as well as for those of us (myself included) who probably or at least may have heard about this and didn't remember, as well as for anyone else who I can't think of this moment and I should probably end this sentence now.) From what I've read, it's kind of a teeny, weeny little bit like communion at a Christmas church service. Here, see what I mean.
A shrine's set up over a statue of Buddha that's standing up (part of a belief about him being able to stand when he was born) that has amacha in front of it. People go to watch some of the amacha be poured over the statue. After this, they then receive some themselves. They'll drink the amacha, which does two things. One is that it's supposed to make it so they'll be healthy. The other thing is that it's supposed to make them more dedicated to their religion.
Okay, it's about 10 where I'm at at the moment, so I think I'll call it an article. G'night now. :)
References:
Because really awesome information sharing people like to share who they are quoting in such an authoritative manner! Plus, I mean, this also makes it so it's not my fault if you go out and accidentally pick say, some leaf that brews a tea with the shockingly bold piquancy of a pickled durian-lutefisk fusion.
"Cell Culture and Somatic Cell Genetics of Plants" (Indra K. Vassil, Editor-in-Chief), Volume 5: "Phytochemicals in Plant Cell Cultures"; Indra K. Vasil (Editor in Chief); Friedrich Constabel, Indra K. Vasil (editors); 1988
Japan and Things Japanese"; Mock Joya; 2006 Well, would'ya look at that!
"The Cultural History of Plants"; Sir Ghillean Prance (consulting editor), Mark Nesbitt (scientific editor); 2005
"Japanese Culture and Behavior: Selected Readings" revised edition; Takie Sugiyama Lebra, William P. Lebra; 1986
"Asian American Religious Cultures"; Jonathan H.X. Lee, Fumitaka Matsuoka, Edmond Yee, and Ronald Nakasone (editors);
"Comprehensive Natural Products II: Chemistry and Biology" Volume I: "Natural Products Structural Diversity-I Secondary Metabolites: Organization and Biosynthesis"; Lew Mander, Hung-Wen (Ben) Liu (editors in chief); Craig A. Townsend, Yutaka Ebizuka (volume editors); 2010
(And, yes, I do know that amacha is a real word in Spanish -- Google told me. ;) )
