Wagashi (和菓子) are traditional Japanese sweets. They are delicate, restrained and often amazingly beautiful. Western sweets lean on butter, cream and plenty of sugar. Wagashi rest on plant ingredients: sweet bean paste, rice and agar jelly, with only a gentle sweetness. Makers create them for the eye as much as for the mouth, and above all to go with tea.
Built from beans and rice
The heart of most wagashi is an (餡), a paste of azuki beans simmered with sugar. Sometimes it is smooth, and sometimes it stays chunky. Around this basic paste, a whole family of sweets has grown:
- Mochi (餅): pounded sticky rice, soft and chewy. Wrapped around bean paste, it becomes daifuku.
- Yōkan (羊羹): a firm jelly of bean paste and agar that you can slice.
- Dango : rice dumplings on a skewer, grilled or glazed.
- Nerikiri : a soft, sweet dough that makers shape and colour by hand into flowers, leaves and seasonal scenes. These are the showpieces of the tea ceremony.
The taste of the season
More than any other food, wagashi express shun, the feeling of the season. A spring sweet may look like a pale pink cherry blossom. It may also be sakura-mochi, wrapped in a salted cherry leaf. Summer brings clear, cooling jellies that look like water or dew. Autumn turns to chestnuts and the red of maple leaves, and winter to camellia and plum. The finest wagashi are jō-namagashi, fresh sculpted sweets for the tea ceremony. The host chooses a single sweet to match the season, the occasion and even the name of the gathering. Their gentle sweetness is deliberate. It sets off the bitterness of matcha, and each balances the other.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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和菓子 vs 洋菓子: 和 means "Japanese," and 洋 means "Western." So 和菓子 (wagashi) are Japanese sweets, and 洋菓子 (yōgashi) are cakes and pastries from Europe. 菓子 (kashi) means "sweets."
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餡 / あんこ (an / anko): sweet red bean paste, the single most important ingredient in the world of wagashi.