THE HISTORY OF JAPANESE SWEETS
Japan divided its seasons with such precision even down to its sweets. Making Japanese Sweets is even consider as form of art. The main diet for Japanese was rice and they processed the rice to make rice cake and dumpling, however this was consider not a sweets but was eaten with the main dish. Japanese considered fruit like „ chest nuts „ and persimmons to be just like a sweet. Even now we call fruit „ mizugashi „ when translated English this means „ water sweets „ . However during Edo period the Kyoto tea culture made rice cakes and dumplings with such detail and variety and took a great deal of time that they became more desired than fruit and their popularity grew. But Japanese sweets were always changing due to foreign influences. Firstly for Example, China introduced a sweet made for rice and oat meal powder kneeded together and fried oil. Secondly during Kmakura and Muromachi era the Zenshuu religion came to Japan and brought with them the idea of tea time or afternoon snack called tenshi. That was when Manju &Mac246; buns stuffed with sweet paste, and Yokan &Mac246; sweet bean jelly, was introduced. Lastly toward the end of Muromachi era Portuguese brought with them sponge cake which is called castella and other European style sweets In conclusion the idea, colur and shape of Japanese sweets was made during the Edo period when the country was under national isolation. Since then other western flavours have been introduced such as cream and butter. And this goes to show that Japanese sweets are always changing.
TAKASHI
Last updated 6-Dec-2001