Chili Pepper Kozuka

[Kurikata]

I have purchased this kozuka recently at an auction in Austria due to the rare topic of a chili pepper (I did not know that Japanese where using chili peper in their cooking)

 

This kozuka is mumei and I have really no information on a specific school.  Should you have some clues, they are much more than welcome.

 

[Kurikata]

I probably had to put this thread in the Tosogu section.

 

Please Brian, can you move it ?

[Spartancrest]

The Walters Art Museum has some Chili pepper tsuba and fittings.

 

[Chili peppers originated in Bolivia and were first cultivated in Mexico. After Columbus and the exchange of foods and cultures, many cultivars of chili pepper spread around the world, used for both food and traditional medicine. This led to a wide variety of cultivars, including the chinense species.
Cultivars grown in North America and Europe are believed to all derive from Capsicum annuum, and have white, yellow, red or purple to black fruits. In 2019, the world's production of raw green chili peppers amounted to 38 million tons, with China producing half.]  Source - Wikipedia     Note. Chillies did not reach China and Japan till the late 16th century.

 

     

 

 https://art.thewalte...ating-chili-peppers/ 

 

https://art.thewalte...uka-with-red-pepper/ 

 

https://www.bonhams....912-circa-1870-1890/

Edited August 10 by Spartancrest
extra link

[Curran]

If it matters, I would describe that as a Korean pepper.Cheong-gochu aka.  청고추

Koreans eat them in stews, soups, and straight up with some fermented gochuchang or doenjang paste on them.

 

I don't know when they came to Japan. Presumably 1600s, but maybe later during the Japanese occupation of Korea circa 1910-1945. That would postdate tosogu, so probably 1600s after the Korea campaigns.

I think they are called Shishito in Japanese? Same biological name as the Korean.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishito

[Kurikata]

Thank you Curran for this extremely interesting information. I read in the Wikipedia description:

The name refers to the fact that the tip of the chili pepper (唐辛子, tōgarashi) looks like the lion (獅子, shishi) head; in Japanese, it is often abbreviated as shishitō.^[2]

 

As a consequence would it be a way to show a ShiShi dog on this kozuka in the way of a rebus?

 

Japanese culture brings so many topics of interests! 

[Spartancrest]

6 hours ago, Curran said:

Koreans eat them in stews, soups, and straight up with some fermented gochuchang or doenjang paste on them.

I swear I was breast fed Chili milk as a baby!       

[Curran]

1 hour ago, Spartancrest said:

I swear I was breast fed Chili milk as a baby!       

You beat me. I think I max out somewhere around Ghost Pepper.

My wife has a super high tolerance and enjoyed seeing me sweat and melt on our second date to a place that could bring the heat.

 

My lifelong best friend was a Cajun with a big mouth and he was neither too physically gifted, nor very martially trained.

When he mouthed off and someone wanted to get in his face, he offered to duel them in a Scoville Throwdown.

One of the highlights of my life was watching him eat the entire highschool football team under the tables with a bunch of open flame cooked habaneros.

Brains (and heat tolerance) over brawn.

[PhoenixDude]

I have a bottle of puckerbutts Reaper Squeezins in my cabinet