Sweets
Ohagi
Ohagi — rice pounded coarse and wrapped in sweet red bean paste for the equinox
Coarsely pounded sticky rice is rolled and wrapped in sweet red bean paste or soybean flour — an offering sweet for the spring and autumn equinoxes. Kyoto is known for tanba dainagon azuki, a large red bean whose skin resists splitting, and confectioners are said to feature it in their ohagi.
- Origin: Kyoto
- About 370 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
This Kyoto sweet for the equinox rolls glutinous rice into oval mounds and wraps them in azuki bean paste or roasted soybean flour. Made with prized Tanba daina-gon azuki, the paste carries a strong, mealy sweetness, and because the beans' skins resist splitting, each bite is said to keep a pleasing graininess. Leaving the rice fluffy, with individual grains still visible, is said to play off the smoothness of the paste. In some places it's also called botamochi, with the name said to shift by season.
How it's made
Cooked glutinous rice is gently shaped into oval mounds, keeping individual grains intact, then wrapped in sweet azuki paste; using plastic wrap is said to make the wrapping easier. Beyond the classic chunky paste, smooth paste and matcha paste are popular variations, it's said, and another version tucks the azuki paste inside the rice and coats the outside in roasted soybean flour instead.
Why it took this shape
The red of azuki beans has long been believed to ward off evil, and the sweet is said to have been made as an offering of thanks to ancestors during the spring and autumn equinoxes. A well-known account holds that the name shifts by season — botamochi in spring, likened to peony blossoms, and ohagi in autumn, likened to bush clover. Kyoto's Tanba daina-gon azuki is prized locally, and because its skin resists splitting, it's said to have earned the name daina-gon — a court rank once exempt from seppuku — as an auspicious bean that never 'splits open,' with the wide day-night temperature swing of its growing region also said to be a point of local pride for the sweetness it produces.
Before You Go
- How to shop in a depachika (department store food hall)A guide to browsing prepared foods and bento, choosing wagashi as a gift with a good shelf life, sampling etiquette, end-of-day discounts, asking for cold packs and wrapping, and finding your way around a depachika floor.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
Dishes in the same style
- Abekawa MochiFresh-pounded rice cake is dusted in soybean flour mixed with sugar. Named for the Abe River, it's said to have been famous among Tokaido travelers as a teahouse specialty and to appear in the travel novel Tokaidochu Hizakurige.
- Iga ManjuSweet bean paste is wrapped in rice flour dough, then coated with dyed sticky rice grains. One account ties the name to the grains' resemblance to a chestnut's spiny husk, and in the western Mikawa region it's said to be offered to Hina dolls at the Doll Festival.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Kyoto
- Chirimen SanshoChirimen-jako simmered sweet-salty with fresh sansho peppercorns in sake, soy sauce, and mirin — a Kyoto side dish said to have begun as a cook's gift in the mid-Showa era. The peppercorns leave a sharp, fragrant aftertaste.
- Ebiimo to Bodara no TaitanEbi-imo, a striped Kyoto heirloom taro named for its shrimp-like ridges, simmers together with bodara, cod dried in Hokkaido. Gelatin from the dried cod is said to keep the taro from falling apart, while the taro's bitterness softens the cod — a textbook 'deaimon' pairing.
- Fushimi no SakeSake from Fushimi in Kyoto, a district fed by groundwater from the Momoyama plateau. Its water is said to be softer than Nada's, giving a round mouthfeel and gentle, full sweetness that overlaps with the profile recognized under the GI Kyoto geographical indication.
- GanmodokiTofu mixed with vegetables, rolled into balls, and fried. Known in Kyoto as hirousu or hiryōzu, thought to have taken this form through the vegetarian temple-cooking idea of a filling dish made without meat.
- Hamo no YakimonoPike conger, riddled with fine bones, is scored with the skilled honekiri cut and then grilled — teriyaki-glazed or salted — in Kyoto cuisine. Said to have taken root in landlocked Kyoto because the hardy fish could be carried in alive, it is also a festival food for Gion Matsuri, nicknamed the 'hamo festival.'
- Kamonasu DengakuKamonasu, a round Kyoto heirloom eggplant over 10cm across sometimes called the 'queen of eggplants,' is sliced and pan-fried in plenty of oil, then topped with a sweet miso reduced with sake and mirin. It is said to have long been grown on the alluvial fan of Kamigamo.