The Lab: Wagashi-Japanese confectionery

wagashi: pictures copywright and source:http://higashiya-shop.com

Back to the Japanese wonderful culinary traditions, lets have a look today to the delicious Wagashi . Beautiful and delicious, Wagashi is a traditional Japanese confectionery typically made from natural (plants) ingredients, and often accompanies tea.

''In ancient Japan, people ate fruits and nuts as confectionery and sweets, to supplement nutrition in addition to grain, such as rice, wheat and millet. In an excavation of a Jōmon period archeological site, the carbonized remains of what appeared to be baked cookiesmade from chestnut powder were discovered. According to the Kojiki, Emperor Suinin ordered Tajima-mori to bring Tokijiku-no-Kagu-no-Konomi (登岐士玖能迦玖能木實 a kind of orange) from the Eternal Land. Ten years later, Tajima-mori returned with the orange, but Emperor Suinin was already dead. Tajima-mori mourned since he could not carry out his mission and took his own life. By tradition, Tajima-mori is worshiped as spirit like a patron saint among confectionery craftsmen. Grain processing technology evolved through rice cultivation. People began to produce a parched rice (yaigome), sun-dried cooked rice (hoshi-ii), rice flour, dumpling (dango), mochi, ame (made of saccharified rice malt), and so on. Thus, ancient people's confectionery was very simple.''(source Wikipedia)

During Edu period Wagashi became a very popular gift between the Samurai( something like a good wine).

Today, wagashi confectioneries are still making a great gift, as specialised shops like Higashiya place a lot of effort into enchanting clients not only through the delicious sweets but also through the beautiful packages.