• 02 Japanese Culture

    Japanese Sweets 和菓子

    Wagashi, or Japanese sweets, have a long history and they are said to date  back to the Jomon Period. It is said that during the Jomon period the process of making dumplings was to crush nuts, removing the lye with water, and rolling them. After that, wagashi evolved under the influence of exchanges with Tang (now China) and the development of the tea ceremony culture. While incorporating various materials and making use of traditional techniques, wagashi have been developed by manufacturing and processing methods to produce higher-quality sweets. On the other hand, it is a characteristic of Japanese sweets culture that the traditional dumplings and rice cakes are still strongly…