Hi all, sorry for the delay until this post as Im sure you
all want to more about Japanese food. Right?
Well today I will be blogging about “Wagashi”, traditional Japanese confectionary. Im sure most of us don’t think much about artistic sense when eating sweets, but this particular “Wagashi” will take you beyond just artistic sense as each individual Wagashi is crafted by a professional craftsman, which has been passed on by generation to generation.
Wagashi is often served with tea in tea ceremony. So if you
get the chance to attend in a tea ceremony, don’t forget to pay attention on
what type of Wagashi is served before you have your macha (green tea).
As you may have guessed, Wagashi came into the Japanese
culture as the tea ceremony becom I think I will blog
about tea ceremony next week seen as I have brought it up here!
e popular amongst the Samurais. Yes,! tea ceremony was originally only for men, and mostly Samurais, no women were allowed at this stage. Tea ceremony is where you can explore your philosophical sense through understanding the purpose of each process you must follow and the whole atmosphere.
e popular amongst the Samurais. Yes,! tea ceremony was originally only for men, and mostly Samurais, no women were allowed at this stage. Tea ceremony is where you can explore your philosophical sense through understanding the purpose of each process you must follow and the whole atmosphere.
Tea Ceremony |
Wagashi become more popular towards Edo period (1603~1868),
where a lot of Japanese culture really became vivid and people were looking for
more leisure.
As I explained before, Wagashi plays an important role of
the tea ceremony because Wagashi was one of many elements which expressed the
seasonal characteristic. As you can see in the photo there are many different
shapes, colour and texture of Wagashi, they all express seasonal
characteristic.
Whether that is through using seasonal ingredient or through
shape.
As I have noted before that Samurais were the main attenders
of tea ceremony? Well guess what!? Samurais were good with hands too! Making
Wagashi.
Most of Samurais would know at least one kind of Wagashi
that they could offer to guests when they invite other Samurais for tea ceremony
to discuss about serious stuff… So serious…
So if you are one of the people who dreamed about becoming a
Samurai, not only you have to practice your sword skills but you better start
helping your mother cook dinner too! So you get practice of making dishes then you
can try making some Wagashi!
Here is a youtube clip demonstrating how one particular
Wagashi is made.
Although Wagashi was loved by all citizens and was very
popular, the demand for Wagashi has dramatically dropped since the Meiji
period, where western culture were brought in and took many’s attentions.
Hence since then, the number of Wagashi craftsman has also
dropped significantly. So if you want to try Wagashi, you might have to search
for specific retail or do your own research. I have found this site which might
help you Here
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