Kikkoman Corporation

Japan has a tremendous variety of sweets, and of these, traditional wagashi are those that best reflect the history and culture of its people. This final installment of our feature series on wagashi looks at the role this confectionery plays in daily life.

Annual Events

Wagashi are considered an indulgence, yet they are closely connected with the Japanese customs and traditions that underscore the rhythms of daily life, season to season.

Events connected with the agricultural calendar, or those of ancient Chinese origin, have always been celebrated throughout the year. These are typically occasions that call for warding off ill fortune, and involve making prayers and offerings to gods or ancestors for a good harvest and prosperity. These offerings are then consumed as a shared blessing by the communal group. Many wagashi trace their origins to such ritual fare.

Some of these wagashi are derived from foods that were originally intended as protection from harm, such as kusa-mochi, glutinous rice cakes flavored with mugwort enjoyed on March 3 ( today known as the Doll Festival); and chimaki, steamed glutinous rice wrapped in leaves of cogon (a tall grassy plant) eaten on May 5 ( now called Children's Day). The vital energy and pungent aroma of wild plants such as mugwort and cogon were believed effective in driving away mischief.

Also falling into this category are mochi glutinous rice cakes, used to represent the human soul; and azuki beans, whose red color is said to protect against misfortune and illness, and thus are often used in confectionery served at ceremonial events. For example, minazuki rice cakes are covered with azuki beans, and are eaten during the June 30 nagoshi-no-harae (summer health and well-being ceremony) held in Kyoto and elsewhere. Often, the confectionery sold at shops located along the approaches to temples and shrines are related to such protection rituals.

Rites, Gifts and Souvenirs

Specific types of wagashi are prepared for special occasions that mark the turning points of life—whether it be birth, entrance to or graduation from school, reaching adulthood, marriage, childbirth or death. These sweets can be symbolic, yet very explicit, representations of particular sentiments.

In celebrations, auspicious motifs may include the three trees of good fortune—pine, bamboo and plum—or the crane and tortoise, along with gay red and white decorations. Upon sorrowful occasions, lotus and chrysanthemum patterns are employed; such designs feature yellow, green and white. The distribution of confectionery at such times clearly expresses the sharing of joy or mourning.

Japan's longstanding custom of giving gifts to people as a means of expressing gratitude, as exemplified by mid-year o-chugen gifts and year-end o-seibo gifts, continues today. Confectionery is the favored choice for these gifts. When visiting friends or acquaintances at their homes, or when they are ill, it is standard practice to bring a gift of sweets to promote a cheerful atmosphere and facilitate social interaction.

There are various kinds of confectionery specific to certain regions and towns and it is customary to purchase locally made confectionery as souvenirs or gifts when traveling. In Nagasaki, for example, a former trading locus for Portugal and Japan in the 16^th century, there is kasutera sponge cake, a modified version of traditional Portuguese confectionery. Niigata, known for its rice production, offers confectionery made of rice flour. In the northeastern city of Sendai there is a variety of affordable, popular confectionery known as dagashi that includes grilled mochi basted with soy sauce, and soybeans mixed with candy and then hardened.

These types of specialty sweets often include an account of the local history and how the confectionery came to be—thus one may literally enjoy a taste of the local culture.

Wagashi and Tea

As mentioned previously in this series, the place of wagashi in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony led to their high level of refinement. At a tea gathering, the host chooses wagashi based on a theme. This confectionery may range from simple sweets made by the host, to delicate, professionally made wagashi that awaken associations with the season.

The serving of koicha, or thick tea, is accompanied by omogashi fresh wagashi; usucha, thin tea, is complemented by glazed wafers or higashi molded dried sweets. The tea, which is the focal point of the ceremony, is served after enjoying the wagashi. To highlight the taste of the tea itself, confectionery that melts in the mouth is preferred, while those with strong scents are avoided.

Beyond the tea ceremony, however, tea and wagashi play an integral role in ordinary Japanese hospitality as well, and it is customary to serve some sort of sweet with green tea when entertaining guests in the home.

Wagashi thus hold a multi-faceted place in Japanese life and in the Japanese heart: as symbol, as ritual, as personal enjoyment—and as a delightful and delectable way of bringing people together and nurturing ties.

Author's profile

Keiko Nakayama graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts where she wrote her thesis on the design of wagashi, traditional Japanese confectionery. She is currently engaged in the study of documents about traditional Japanese sweets, oversees relevant exhibitions and edits the annual publication Wagashi at Toraya Archives, the documentary and research division of well-known traditional confectioner, Toraya Confectionery Co., Ltd. Among her publications are Jiten: Wagashi no Sekai ("A dictionary of the world of wagashi"); and Edo Period Japanese Confection Designs.