page_title: Kibi dango (millet dumpling)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Kibi dango (millet dumpling) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover of Momotaro (Japanese Fairy Tale Series Number 1), tr. David Tomson, published by T. Hasegawa in 1886. Depicts Momotaro offering millet dumplings (kibi dango) to dog, with pheasant and monkey watching.
context_page_description: Kibi dango is Japanese dumpling made from the meal or flour of the kibi grain. The treat was used by folktale-hero Momotarō to recruit his three beastly retainers, in the commonly known version of the tale.
  In modern times, this millet dumpling has been confounded with the identically-sounding confection Kibi dango named after Kibi Province, even though the latter hardly uses any millet at all. The confectioners continue to market their product by association with the hero Momotarō, and more widely, Okayama residents have engaged in a concerted effort to claim the hero as native to their province. In this context, the millet dumpling's historical association with the Kibi Province has undergone close scrutiny. In particular, Kibitsu Shrine of the region has had ongoing association with serving food by the name kibi dango.
  Conventionally, kibi dango or kibi mochi uses the sticky variety proso millet known as mochi kibi, rather than the regular millet used for creating sweets.
context_section_description: Use of the term kibi dango in the sense of "millet dumpling" occurs at least as early as the Yamashinake raiki (『山科家礼記』, "Diary of the Yamashina Family"), in an entry dated 1488 (Chōkyō 2, 3rd month, 19th day) which mentions "kibi dango". The Japanese-Portuguese dictionary Nippo Jisho (1603–04) also listed "qibidango", which it defined as "millet dumpling".
  There had been similar foods in earlier times, though not specifically called kibi dango. Writer Akatsuki Kanenari in his 1862 essay collection observed that such foods, made out of millet meals or other ground grains undergoing a process of steaming and pounding, and recognizable as dango to his contemporaries, were once called bei (餅, the same character as mochi) in the olden days.
caption: Hero offering millet dumpling to dog, Momotaro, tr. David Tomson (1886)
exif: {}