Wagashi 和菓子はなに？？


I love eating and have especially been looking forward to wagashi in Japan, so I researched that while we have been here! I will be presenting on what wagashi is and its history and development based on things I learned from the Kyoto Confectionery Museum, visiting different wagashi stores, and other research.
Wagashi is usually defined as traditional Japanese sweets using plant based materials and that have seasonal designs.

There were various drawings, tools, and books on display at the museum relating to the history of wagashi. It is said that the first wagashi is from the 11th century when a man named Tajimamori went in search of a food that makes people immortal for the emperor and brought back tachibana, a fruit. Japan adopted other kinds of sweets and ingredients over the years from China and Portugal and Spain, and it was especially developed during the Edo period.


There was a beautiful display of confectionery at the museum as well! I then tried a sweet made of kinton, which I didn’t recognize, but it turned out to be white bean paste, I think. I also bought a sweet with mochi on the outside. They both looked pretty and I heard that they change based on the season.
I also bought kashiwa mochi, which is made around children’s day. Since some mochi is made only during certain times of the year, you have to catch the right timing to enjoy them! (I barely missed eating chimaki.)


There is a store that is over 1,000 years old, said to be Japan’s oldest wagashi store, that I also went to. They sell aburi mochi there. The aburi mochi used to be eaten by the people after visiting the Imamiya shrine for protection of health.


Torori Tenshi no Warabimochi is a more modern store that specializes in very soft warabimochi.
Since there is so much variety of wagashi, it is difficult to define, but basically I felt that it is traditional Japanese sweets. I think it is amazing that people are keeping tradition in the form of wagashi in all sorts of ways, whether in continuing long standing stores or adapting old forms of wagashi for modern times.




VOCAB:

はったつ: development

きょうがしりょうかん: Kyoto Confectionery Museum

伝統的 (でんとうてき): traditional

しょくぶつせい: plant-based

きせつ: season

ふろうふし の 食べ物: food that makes you immortal

かき: persimmon

神社仏閣 (じんじゃぶっかく) の供物 (くもつ): offerings at shrines and temples

あんこ: red bean paste

さくひん: product

きなこ: roasted soybean powder

しろみそ: white miso (made out of soybeans I think)

わらびもち: bracken mochi

きんだい: modern times



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