Nama Yatsuhashi

The same rice flour, sugar, and cinnamon dough as yatsuhashi, left unbaked and simply steamed — a soft, semi-fresh sweet. The draw is its chewy, pliable texture and cinnamon aroma; folding it around smooth bean paste into a triangle has become the standard form. Versions filled with chestnut or matcha paste, not just smooth red bean, have also spread, the variety of fillings said to add to the fun of choosing. The dough is prone to drying out and stiffening, so wrapping each piece individually in a thin film is said to be a way of preserving its softness.

Rice flour is steamed with sugar and cinnamon and rolled into a thin square. Unlike the hard-baked yatsuhashi, it stays soft and unbaked; bean paste is placed on it and the square is folded along the diagonal into a triangle. Matcha- and fruit-flavored versions of the dough are said to have spread as well. An informal way of eating it rolled instead of folded into a triangle is also known, its ease of eating by hand without cutting said to be part of its appeal.

One account holds that eating the dough steamed and unbaked is an old practice, but that it only took hold widely as a Kyoto confection from the Showa era, said to have been prompted by its serving at a tea gathering the day before the Gion Festival in 1960. Because the unbaked dough stays soft and blends easily with the paste inside, it is said to have settled into the folded triangle known today. Folding it neatly into a triangle with crisp corners is said to be trickier than it looks, demanding both speed and care.