Whenever we go to the Japanese restaurant and finish the meal by eating a dorayaki, a daifuku mochi, or a mochi with green tea ice cream, I am always assailed by a sense of incompleteness. It also happens when someone tells me they don’t like Japanese sweets because glutamous rice batter sticks in their mouth and the taste ofanko, red bean jam, has a texture that is too different from what we are used to. These speeches leave me, needless to say, a bad taste in my mouth, because it seems that Japanese pastry is all here.
From this annoyance my idea of dedicating a book to tea and sweets of Japan was born, which is called – in fact – Tea and Sweets of Japan, History, myths and recipes (Gribaudo edition, in bookstores from April).
JAPANESE SWEETS, THE NEW TREND
The moment seems very propitious: driven by the spread of matcha, the typical green tea, the Japanese confectionery tradition is one of the gastronomic novelties of recent times, with its temples of taste, first of all Hiromi Cake the all-Japanese patisserie that was born in Rome and recently opened in Milan as well.
But what must you absolutely try of this confectionery tradition? The mochi first of all, the typical representatives of the confectionery tradition of the Rising Sun called wagashi, and then – at the other extreme – the new creations of our house reinterpreted with Japanese ingredients, such as tiramisu with matcha tea. In between are the yōgashi, that is all those sweets of Western origin that today are part of the Japanese tradition and few know that in Japan the art of baking is flourishing, that is the kashipan, baked goods: anyone who has been to Tokyo knows very well what walking through its streets means slalom through the boulangeries. In the land of rice this also happens and it is very curious.
THE SWEETS OF THE MISSIONARIES
Retrieve the narrative on yōgashi It is on kashipan, means investigating a particular historical period, that of the Sengoku jidai (1467 – 1615) during which Japan was shaken by internal wars that led to the unification of the country in 1600 and therefore to the beginning of the Edo period. It was precisely during the Sengoku jidai that the first Jesuit missionaries landed on the shores of Kagoshima (1549), bringing their culture with them, including the gastronomic one.
The symbol of this meeting between East and West is the Castile (the kasutera) the sponge cake which, once arrived in Japan, was domesticated according to local tastes and needs. The Japanese, not very accustomed to animal fats, made it softer and lighter, fell in love with this version of theirs and never left it. During the Japanese Middle Ages, however, this was not the only thing that happened. In that period also lived the most important chajin, Tea master, of all time, Sen no Rikyū. It is he who, through tea, was able to complete a process of identity synthesis by unmarking Japan from Chinese influences. This process ended with the codification of the wabicha, a path that is still the Japanese practice of tea today (detailed, along with other stories, in my book).
Are you curious to try Japanese sweets? In the gallery above those not to be missed.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
