Sweets
Urajiro Manju
Urajiro manju — a mochi-like bun kneaded with the white-backed leaf of oyamabokuchi
Young leaves of the thistle-like oyamabokuchi plant are kneaded into the dough around a sweet bean filling — a confection from the Yamato area of Koshu city, said to have begun when fiber from the same leaf, once used as a binder for hoto noodles, was worked into a bun instead.
- Origin: Yamanashi Koshu
- About 90 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Young leaves of Oyama-bokuchi, a wild mountain plant, are kneaded into the dough that wraps around sweet bean paste. The chewy stickiness resembles mugwort mochi, but almost none of the grassy scent comes through, letting the paste's sweetness stand out clearly, locals say. The plant's name is said to come from the white down on the underside of its leaves, giving this plain-looking sweet its character.
How it's made
Young, tender Oyama-bokuchi leaves are picked and rinsed the same day to draw out their bitterness. Dough made from rice flour kneaded with water, mochi rice steamed and pounded, and the prepared leaves are pounded together in a mortar, and the resulting dough is wrapped around bean paste, people say. The leaf's fiber is said to act as a binder, giving the dough its chewy spring.
Why it took this shape
The fiber drawn from Oyama-bokuchi leaves is said to have once been used as a binder in hoto noodle dough, and applying that same leaf to manju is said to be how this sweet began. Because the underside of the leaf appears white, it's said to have come to be called 'urajiro,' or 'white-backed.' The skill of turning a familiar wild plant into a binder seems to have carried over from noodle-making into sweets in this flour-centered region.
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.
- At kissaten, cafes, and kanmi-dokoroThe difference between jun-kissa and chain cafes, the morning-set custom, and kanmi-dokoro staples like anmitsu and zenzai.
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 Yamanashi
- Akebono Daizu no EdamameThe 'akebono' soybean, said to be 1.6 times the size of an ordinary bean, is picked young and salt-boiled — an edamame from the Akebono area of Minobu town. Grown since the Meiji era but resistant to mechanization, aging growers have made it scarce enough to be called a 'phantom bean'.
- Amanatto no OsekihanMade without azuki or cowpea beans, glutinous rice is dyed red with food coloring and mixed with candied sweet beans — a Yamanashi take on celebratory red rice, sweet-salty with a sprinkle of sesame salt. A similarly sweet red rice is said to exist far away in Hokkaido and parts of Tohoku.
- AnbinSweet potato and wheat flour are kneaded with hot water, wrapped around bean paste, slapped flat, and steamed — a sweet from the Kyonan region. Its name is said to come from the slapping motion, revived in Ichikawamisato town's Rokugo area after a local school's closure sparked a heritage-food effort.
- Awabi no NigaiAbalone from Suruga Bay was soy-sauce-marinated and hauled in barrels by horse, the jostling and body heat said to have worked the flavor deep in — a specialty from landlocked Kofu. Sliced thin and paired with its liver, shiso, and cucumber, it endures as a taste of the sea inland.
- Azuki HotoHoto noodles, cut thicker than usual, are simmered in sweet azuki bean soup in place of mochi — a festival food in Yamanashi. The summer festival at Miwa Shrine in Hokuto city's Wakamiko area is nicknamed the 'hoto festival', and azuki's red color is said to ward off misfortune.
- Hirauchi TanmenA salt-based tanmen from Kofu, Yamanashi, built on wide, flat noodles said to feel almost like fettuccine. Bean sprouts, pork, and napa cabbage pile on top for a vegetable-heavy bowl carried on today by several shops around the prefecture.