At your father's prompting, you recognized the eldest daughter of the Raiden Clan. But her aloof, unapproachable demeanor kept you from going up to greet her right away.
This "Amaterasu Conference," where the Twelve Houses of Izumo gathered, would last three days. The first day was a family banquet; the second was the internal meeting where plans for the next twelve years would officially be drafted; the third coincided with Izumo Province's traditional festival, the Tenchō-setsu Festival.
The Tenchō-setsu Festival had a long history. It had originally been established to honor Izumo Tenchō, the first swordsmith of Izumo Province. After several Amber Eras, it had become a traditional holiday in Izumo Province. The Ryoma Patriarch had chosen this time for the Twelve Houses of Izumo gathering precisely because of that.
The Tenchō-setsu Festival usually fell on Izumo's spring equinox, which was also when Izumo Province's famed Shūshin'i Flowers bloomed.
People therefore called a pastry commonly eaten around this time "Shūshin'i Cake." In truth, however, Shūshin'i Cake was simply glutinous rice cake wrapped in red bean paste. No Shūshin'i Flowers were added to it.
Of course, some had tried adding Shūshin'i Flowers to the red bean glutinous rice cakes, or grinding the flowers into powder and mixing it into the rice flour.
But the taste of the finished product had made its creators abandon that idea.
From this, people had drawn a lesson: some flowers perched too high could not be used to satisfy one's appetite.
The drinks of the Tenchō-setsu Festival were also rather particular. When the cherry blossoms bloomed, people of Izumo Province would pick fresh blossoms and pickle them beneath cherry trees. At the winter solstice, they would dig them up and use them to make sweet cherry blossom wine. Any extra blossoms could also be added to