Ritsumeikan Traditional Art Courses: Japanese Confectionery (Wagashi)

Every semester Ritsumeikan offers some special traditional art classes which are aimed at exchange students following the SKP program. The classes offered vary from semester to semester, and the traditional art classes offered during the spring semester is Shamisen (三味線), Ikebana (生け花) and Wagashi (和菓子). Wagashi is the word for Japanese confectionery, and this is something especially Kyoto is famous for.

I have to say though that I wish we would make more sweets in this course:p.. So far we have had around 6 classes, but only made sweets twice. Also, we don't learn to make the sweets from scratch. Of course I realize it would have been quite unpractical if we were to do it that way though.. Anyway, enough about that. We get to take the sweets we make with us home, and they are great gifts.!

Our teacher explaining how to make sakuramochi

For making sakuramochi (桜餅) we divided red bean paste into small balls which we then wrapped in mochi rice. Just as easy as it sounds like. (^_^)v

Red bean paste almost covered by mochi

Alex and mochi.

After rolling the mochi so that they are nice and round you just wrap them in two sakura leaves, and voila!, there you have a finished sakuramochi..

Sakuramochi ready to be eaten!

A random pic from the wagashi studio. These are used to make wagashi-sweets with pattern. 

第二回 Chimaki!

The second type of Wagashi we have made so far this semester is Chimaki! We used mochi this time as well, though this time even the shape of the mochi had already been prepared for us. What we was going to learn, was how to wrap the mochi in bamboo leaves (ささ -> 笹). Which actually was a little bit tougher than what it sounds like, but quite a lot of fun too. I've also added a video if you want to take a closer look at how to do the wrapping.

Mochi ready to be wrapped..

 Our teacher demonstrating where to place the mochi on the bamboo leave

Here is a video showing the wrapping process more detailed.

This is how it looks like when a mochi has been wrapped in bamboo leaves.

But one mochi is not enough for this style though; you need to wrap three of them which you afterwards bind together to make the final chimaki.

After wrapping three mochi in bamboo leaves our teacher showed us how to bind them together.

And there you have it: Chimaki made by me, Alex and Ericka.

Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
Anette

Related blogposts

• All blogposts from Ritsumeikan
• All my blogposts about Japanese Culture Classes offered by Ritsumeikan:
  Wagashi (confectionery) (spring semester)
  Calligraphy (autumn semester
  Ceramics (autumn semester)
  Ikebana (flower arrangement) (spring semester)

About Anette
Anette came to Japan as an exchange student in 2010, met the love of her life and got stuck. From her base in Tokyo she writes about her experiences as a full-time worker in Tokyo and about her travels in Japan and abroad. She's a free-spirited adventurer who enjoys both the great outdoors and her urban lifestyle.