Kikusui” means “Chrysanthemum water” and refers to a Chinese legend and Japanese noh theater play attributing eternal youth to drinking the morning dew from chrysanthemum leaves. Are you imagining that anyone could do that? First the youth wrote prayers from the Lotus Sutra regarding cultivating virtue and compassion on the leaves, resulting in dew with some magical properties indeed. We can see the chrysanthemum emblem all around this float: look for the symbol on the wheel hubs, for example. In the 16th century a monk and student of teamaster Sen no Rikyu (creator of the contemporary tea ceremony) located his small tea hut at the site of this float, next to a well with particularly sweet water. He named the well “Kikusui well” after the Chinese legend (by then also a Japanese noh play), and the float’s name came from this well.
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