Sakuramochi 桜もち

History and Origins

It seems that Sakura was invented by a man who lived at the temple's entrance in Japan. From then on, he was the famous cherry blossoms. When I was cleaning a lot of cherry leaves on the bank, I thought I was going to do it, salted them and wrapped them up. When I began selling this "Sakuraji" at the temple gate, I heard that the flowerers were so happy to eat the cherry tree and that the cherry blossoms were so popular in this place. So, the cherry tree created during the Edo period continues down to our day. The cherry leaves are used by the Oshima cherry leaves. In Kanto, the flour dough is ground into a circular shape, or round, and then wraps it around the dough so that it can be seen from the side. I wrap two or three cherry leaves salted on this. It is still a success that The Long-Sell Takeshita and Yamamoto still sell Sakura near the temple of Long Life.

When It Is Eaten

During the year of Yoshitaka, cherry blossoms were planted on an ink offering, year after year, and flowers were grown and flowers were enjoyed by visitors. We can now eat through the year.

How It Is Eaten

I'll boil and paste the little beans and cook them. The dough that has melted flour or white flour in water and has a cherry color in water, or the dough that has been baked as thin as a crepe in a fray pan, then wraps it in a salted cherry leaf. The salted cherry leaves and the non-eatable ones divide.

Recipe — Serves 1

Ingredients

• Mix: 50 g 【】 10 g 【】 15 g 【】 a pinch 【】 100 ml 【】 a pinch 【】 a pinch 【】 65 g 【】 90 g 【】 130 ml 8–16 wheat flour

Method

1. Add sugar and water to the pot, put it on fire, make a paste and roll it into eight pieces.
2. I'll put a white ball in the ball and crush it. Add flour and sugar salt, add water, and make a well-boiled garment.
3. I'm going to make half the fabric pink with lipstick. This time, add a little water to the lipstick and then color it slowly to make it look like fabric.
4. I'm going to put a thin oil on the pan, then I'm going to turn two into an ellipse and burn four small pieces of fire. Three will burn four as well.
5. (I'll wrap one pot while it's hot and the cherry leaves are so strong that I'll put out salt and put it on thin salt) so the back of the leaf wrapped in it will come out.)

More About Sakuramochi

Sakuramochi (桜餅) is a Japanese confection (wagashi) consisting of sweet, pink-colored rice cake (mochi) with red bean paste (anko) filling, wrapped in a pickled cherry blossom (sakura) leaf, which may or may not be eaten depending on individual preference.

Traditionally, the sweet is eaten during the spring season, especially at the annual Hinamatsuri celebration on March 3 and flower viewing (hanami) parties.

History

The invention of sakuramochi is traditionally attributed to the Mukōjima neighborhood of Edo (today Tokyo) in the second year of the Kyōhō era (1717 AD), when Shinroku Yamamoto, who had worked as a gatekeeper at Chōmei-ji Temple since 1691, established a teahouse named Yamamoto-ya in front of the temple.

Originally meant for those visiting their family graves in the Chōmei-ji cemetery, the sweet was wrapped in cherry blossom leaves Yamamoto collected while cleaning up the temple grounds. The sweet grew popular among the crowds of hanami-goers, many of whom were attracted by the cherry blossom trees planted along the Sumida River by the order of the shōgun Tokugawa Yoshimune.

Yamamoto-ya remains in business to this day and is often simply referred to as Chōmeiji. Available all year, its sakuramochi is made from wheat flour, adzuki from Hokkaido, and Oshima cherry leaves from Matsuzaki, Shizuoka, using a recipe largely unchanged since the Edo period.

Types

There are two major types of sakuramochi: Chōmeiji and Dōmyōji. Though their origins are regional, both types are often available at wagashi shops and supermarkets.

Kanto style

Sakuramochi common in the Kantō region, particularly in Tokyo, also known as Chōmeiji-mochi. This type is a kind of crêpe made from shiratama-ko (glutinous rice flour), though the original sakuramochi at Chōmeiji Yamamoto-ya uses wheat flour.

Kansai style

Sakuramochi common in the Kansai region, also referred to as Dōmyōji-mochi after the Buddhist temple in Osaka where its nuns made the famous Dōmyōji-hoshii (dried glutinous rice). It is somewhat similar to ohagi.

Text adapted from the English Wikipedia article Sakuramochi by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Dish data: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), “Uchi no Kyodo Ryori” (Our Regional Cuisines) database, used under the Public Data License (PDL1.0); translated and adapted from the Japanese original.