Please enjoy beautiful Japanese confectionary.
One of the best aspects of visiting Japan is to enjoy Japanese cuisine. Japan has not only
typical Japanese dishes but also a variety of dishes which had originally come from foreigncountries and transferred into somewhat Japanese tastes. This time I would like to tell you
something about traditional Japanese confectionery and modern Japanese style sweets.
Characteristics of Japanese confectionery are beautiful-looking, light and soft in tastes andlow in calorific value. You can meetand taste them at tea ceremony andshops specializing these kinds ofconfectionary. IJCEE

offers someguide services of cultural experiences
including tea ceremony for people
from foreign countries in English andother languages.
Japanese confectionery has a very
long history.

The origin of Japanese

confectionery goes back to ancientera. At this time people ate cookies made of nuts, though they ate mainly fish and shells. It
was the time before Japanese people began to cultivate and eat rice.
Trade with China and visiting of Portuguese and Spaniards in order to spread Christianity
in Japan gave great influences on Japanese confectionery. Sugar was brought to Japan andusing eggs was new to the Japanese then. As for the confectionery at tea ceremony, very
simple kinds were used in early 17th century.
Japan closed its country for more than 200 years. It was the time when a variety of
traditional Japanese culture flourished like Kabuki as well as Japanese confectionary.
Japanese style confectionery like today, which is rich in colors and has beautiful shapes,
was began to develop in late 17th century under seclusion policy.
Also, due to alternate attendance system, some sweets began to spread among many places.
Alternate attendance system required local lords to live in Edo (present Tokyo) every otheryear so they go back and forth between Edo and local area.(The aim of this system was toweaken the local lords financially.)
Besides, many places where people gather created their own attractive sweets. Thesesweets became notable examples of the areas. Sweets were enjoyed among not only theupper class people but also the common people by 19th, century.
What kinds of confectionery were made in this time of your country？

It is sometimesinteresting to think how was like in other countries at the same era and what they did.
Opening the country to the world after 220 years of national isolation brought Japan a lotof changes. Sweets were not the exceptions.

A

variety of sweets that were combined two elements, which were western style andJapanese style, were created during this time.

“Anpan” represents this style.

“Anpan” is a kind of bread stuffed with sweet bean paste. Bread had come from westernworld, and “An”, sweet red bean paste, is one of the most popular ingredients ofJapanese sweets. Red soybeans which are boiled and smashed and mixed with sugar
become “An”.
During world war Ⅱ, Japanese sweets had a hard time because there wasn’t enoughsugar and many tools for making sweets which were made of metal were collected tomake weapons. At this time, people made simple sweets. People just smashed sweet
potatoes, and squeezed into shape in a cloth. Sugar was hardly available.
After the war, people enjoy many kinds of sweets in Japan. Now traditional Japanese
confectionary, sweets from foreign countries and sweets of semi-Western style are allavailable in Japan.
It can be said that new era has just come. You can taste popular western style sweets
made by Japanese ingredients and special method called macrobiotic in certain shops inJapan. For example, tiramisu, an Italian dessert, can be made from Tofu (soybean curd)without using egg, milk and white sugar. It is better for the health especially for thepeople who have allergic to milk and eggs andfor the people who need to control calories.
Now it might be said that it is the turn forJapan to export its method or technique ofmaking sweets to the world. It’s a newcollaboration of western style confectionaryand Japanese method.
Confectionary is very attractive and plays
important roles in communication, too. People
enjoy sweets over a cup of coffee with theirfriends and family and having greattime.

I hope you enjoy Japanese traditional sweets as well as Japanese sweets influenced
and developed by western sweets and western sweets influenced by Japanese style.
Reported by Ms. Miho Baba
Toraya URL: http://www.toraya-group.co.jp/english/index.html