Nerikiri

White bean paste worked with gyuhi or grated mountain yam as a binder into a soft, moldable dough. This dough, tinted lightly with food coloring, is shaped by hand into seasonal motifs — flowers, leaves, scenes of the moment. Spring brings cherry blossoms or plum, summer morning glories or goldfish, autumn maple leaves or chrysanthemums — an entirely different design each season is said to define this sweet. Whether more or less grated yam is worked into the paste changes both its smoothness and how lightly it melts in the mouth.

White bean paste is strained smooth and worked with a binder into dough. The colored dough is shaped bit by bit using only the hands and simple tools — spatulas, triangular picks — to render details like overlapping petals or leaf veins. Bean paste is often wrapped inside as filling. A gradation technique blending colors as they're layered is also used, said to allow multiple shades to melt into a single petal in advanced work.

One account holds that dough made moldable by adding a binder to white bean paste developed as a sweet meant to bring a sense of season to the tea ceremony. Because it is shaped entirely by hand without a mold, it is said to allow designs that capture a fleeting moment of the season, with a maker's skill showing directly in the finished piece. As the principal sweet at a tea gathering, it is sometimes made as a one-off piece for that day alone, said to hold a special standing among wagashi.