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Feb 2, 2011

Wagashi #1 Wakakusa 若草 Young Grass


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History of Wakakusa

Wakakusa is one of the three most famous Wagashi in Matsue city. It was named by Lord Matsudaira Fumai (1751-1818), who was the leader of the Matsue Clan and made Matsue famous for Wagashi. He is know as a person of culture and a success as a Chajin-茶人- (the person who is a professional of tea ceremony and loves tea). His ability as a Chajin (茶人) was first-class. He made written records of some of his favorite Wagashi which he often ate at the tea ceremony. Wakakusa is one of the sweets he especially liked. However, the recipe for Wakakusa was lost due to a long lapse of time. It was revived around 1890 by Yamaguchi Zenemon who was the first shopkeeper of Saiundou (which is one of the famous Wagashi shops in Matsue).
In Matsue, Wakakusa continues to be popular as one of the Wagashi which Lord Fumai liked.


Culture of Wakakusa


Matsue is famous for green tea and sweets like Kyoto and Kanazawa.
Matsudaira Humai established Matsue’s relationship with Wagashi.
Humai made the “Humai-Ryu” (which means Fumai- Style) school of Tea Ceremony, the Wagashi used in this style of tea ceremony are called “Humai-Gonomi” (which means the Wagashi that Fumai liked), and continues to this day. In Matsue, many people supposedly ate green tea and Japanese sweets for breakfast, but this custom is not popular anymore.
“Wakakusa” is the main Japanese sweet served at tea ceremonies in the spring. “Wakakusa” was the main Wagashi used by the Matsudaira’s, the ruling clan of Matsue.


Roots of the name "Wakakusa - 若草"

Wakakusa gets its name from Matsudaira Fumai’s waka (a traditional Japanese poem)
This is Fumai’s waka translated by us into English:

Oh, lt’s cloudy
Before it rains
You should pick the young grass on Mt. Togao

Here it is in Japanese:


曇るぞよ雨降らぬうちに摘みてこむ 栂尾山の春の若草


This poem may also be interpreted as advice to capture your love’s heart before her feelings suddenly change, like the weather.
Below is a video of us writing the name, "Wakakusa" in Japanese style calligraphy.



Wagashi's recipe

Ingredients
rice flour   100g
water   200g
wasanbon (this is a special grade of powdered sugar)  100g
superfine sugar (castor sugar)  100g
green soybean flour to cover
Put the rice flour in a microwavable bowl, add 100 grams of water, and mix until there are no lumps. Add the rest of the water and mix. Add the wasanbon and the caster sugar.
Cover with plastic wrap, heat it in the microwave oven for 4 minutes and then mix sufficiently.( Be careful when mixing because it is hot. )
Cover with plastic wrap again and heat it for 2 minutes and then mix again. Next, take off the plastic wrap, heat it every 30 seconds it the microwave oven and mix until it becomes very sticky. Continue to heat and mix until you have a clear and glossy paste.
Dust a large clean surface with the green soybean flour and put on it. Then, dust the green soybean flour on its surface, spread to the thickness of your liking and cool at room temperature. After it is cool, cut in your favorite size. Put some of the green soybean flour in a tea strainer and sprinkle the wakakusa on all sizes. Then, sprinkle more green soybean flour on its surface with the tea strainer.

Tasting

We bought Wakakusa and tasted it. First, we appreciated its appearance. Wakakusa’s color is light green. There is a reminiscence of fresh grass in its color. It made us feel fresh, like spring. It is square and easy to hold. The maker may have considered that it is easy to hold when people eat it with powdered green tea. The size is small and we can eat it in 3 bites. It’s very cute and relaxing.

Wakakusa has very little aroma, but it smelled slightly sweet.
The green powder covering the Wakakusa is very grainy. Its texture and taste is like sugar but we thought its sweetness is gentle and not overpowering. The inside paste is soft and chewy like a rice cake. Without tea, it’s a little too sweet. But with tea, they produce a wonderful, slightly chewy combination!


Saiundo Wagashi Shop


Saiundo
This is Saiundo in Matsue.(Head office)


We had whisked Matcha and a cool summer wagashi.
Can you see the goldfish swimming inside it?



What’s Saiundo

Saiundo is a Japanese sweets (Wagashi) shop in Matsue city, Japan.

This shop was established 136 years ago. 

This shop is famous for Wakakusa, a wagashi that represents the fresh spring grass.

Saiundo sells more than 30 kinds of wagashi that change according to the season.

You can buy wagashi and enjoy them in the shop with a hot bowl of frothy green tea (matcha).


Saiundo kindly lets us examine their books on wagashi
and served us green tea and more sweets!


This bird is made entirely from sugar!

Visit to Saiundo

We visited Saiundo, and we were able to ask Mr.Yamagachi, the chief executive of Saiundo a few questions.

Here is some of the information he shared with us…

Wagashi and the tea ceremony are inseparable.  Wagashi matches green tea because wagashi is sweet and green tea is bitter.  Wagashi were generally made especially for the purpose of the tea ceremony.

The tea ceremony is held in a small tea ceremony room.  The room directs us to another time and space. 

There are four seasons in Japan. The difference of each season is clear.

Wagashi represents the nature of each season.  

But, it is very difficult to make wagashi well. Even the moisture and temperature in the air are important factors for making them.

A high level of skill and experience is necessary to make wagashi.  A typical craftsman needs 10 years or so to become an expert.

Mr. Yamaguchi loves wagashi, so he wants many people to know more about wagashi.  We want to thank him for taking the time to teach us a little about wagashi in Matsue.


Making Wagashi Lesson at Karakorokoubo



Aoto-sensei taught us how to make a plum wagashi. He gave us a ball of sweet bean paste with a piece of plum inside. We wrapped it up in green nerikiri (nerikiri is a mixture of white bean paste and steamed rice flour with food coloring) as you can see in the picture.  

He rolled it softly in his hands and made a ball.


After wrapping , it looks like this green ball. 


Next, he used a sharp stick like this and put the crease in the plum.

  He put the stick in cinnamon and poked the end of the plum to make a stem hole.


Like this!!
This wagashi was finished. 
 
After making the plums, he taught us how to make hydrangea wagashi. 
Because this flower blooms in June and we went there on June 15th.
He put two colors of nerikiri together (white and purple) and pushed it half-way through a sieve.


He hit the sieve and dropped pieces of nerikiri on the table next to each student.


He softly put a ball of sweet bean paste on the piles of nerikiri.


He gently picked up the ball of sweet bean paste and started to put left over nerikiri pieces on the ball with sharp chopsticks until it was covered completely - as you can see in the pictures below.


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The white and purple nerikiri pieces are meant to look like hydrangea petals.


After fixing the shape, finally, he put a leaf on the hydrangea wagashi and it was finished.

  
We really enjoyed making wagashi!
 If you come to Matsue, why don't you learn how to make wagashi!
You'll certainly have a special time.
It'll cost you 1,500 yen per person and it takes about an hour.


Bean Gong Party



Bean Gong Party

We had a bean gong party!  These sweets are called dorayaki in Japanese.  Dora means "gong" and yaki means "to cook".  They look like little gongs so we call them "Bean Gongs".  There is a sweet red bean paste filling between the two pancakes on the outside. 
The purpose of the party is “ Enjoy Japanese-style sweets at home.”
You can get the ingredients for Bean Gongs even in foreign countries.  They are not too hard to make, so why don't you give it a try?




Material of Pancakes


Eggs 2
Sugar
 100g
Honey
 11/2 tablespoons
Salad oil
 1 tablespoon
Baking Soda
 1/3 teaspoon
Sweet Sake
 1 tablespoon (optional)
Flour
 150 grams
Water
 40~60 cc




Bean paste


Red beans 300gram
Sugar 300gram
Salt 1/2 tea spoon

(How do you make the bean paste?)

※   If you can’t get Red Bean Paste, whipped cream can be used instead.
By using whipped cream or other non-traditional ingredients you can try a new style of Japanese sweet!
You can make these Japanese-style cakes the way you like it.  Click here to learn more about ingredients for Japanese sweets




Let’s make it!!






1. Mix the material for the pancakes together.



2.  After resting the dough for about 10 minutes, grill them like pancakes.
3. Put some bean paste on a pancake after it cools and cover it with another pancake to make a little gong.   

Here is a finished bean gong.  It is about 8 cm in diameter.

We had fun making them and eating them too!


New Matsue Kashi





SMALL APPLE 
This wagashi looks cute! We can enjoy the strong flavor of apple in this little sweet. It is made from minced apple with savory white bean paste. It uses cherry's stem instead of apple's for the stem. This completely new wagashi is a taste explosion!








HANAICHIGO
"HANA" means  a flower and "ICHIGO" means a strawberry. Its appearance is cute and its color is pink, white and brown. Its texture is soft and melts in your month. Its taste is very sweet. We're surprised that it's very thick and sweet. We think it suits American tastes rather than Japanese tastes.


 


SHAKE HANDS
Akushu (SHAKE HANDS) is made by Furyudo as new Wagashi. This dough is made from fresh cream and cream cheese. This sweet bean paste inside, has pieces of ginger and grapefruit mixed in it. The ginger,grapefruit and orange-liqueur tastes and fragrance are very strong. This Wagashi's taste is a little like marmalade.



CHARO
CHARO is new wagashi in which we can enjoy Japanese tea's flavor with peanuts' flavor because there are Macha, Sencha, white chocolate and peanuts mixed in layers with white bean paste. However, CHARO has a despite these different tastes. CHARO's texture is soft and like a cake. It tastes good with coffee. Its appearance displays a beautiful contrast between the green of the Macha and the white of the white chocolate. If you can eat CHARO, you will be able to feel Japan.









KURUMI
You can enjoy walnut flavor and texture. The outside of this wagashi is a steamed bun like manju. The inside has a sweet bean paste and walnut filling.









MOMIJI
The appearance is a beautiful green and orange tinge with the garnishes of Japanese Maple. It resembles the color of leaves turning from green to orange.
It's main characteristics are the soft dough and the flavor of yuzu which is a citrus fruit native to Asia. It melts in your mouth like a marshmallow or meriengue.



 



PUMPKIN TART
You can enjoy soft pumpkin and its flavor once you eat. It is not so sweet so it make me want to eat more.


 






MOMOKA
Momoka looks like manju.The outside of this wagashi is a steamed bun like manju.And white bean jam and peach were wraped bysteamed bun.It taste was not so sweet and freshness.This is the New wagashi but it like traditional Wagashi.
 

Meimei-An Tea Ceremony House

Meimei-An
Meimei-An, which was built by Matsudaira Fumai, is one of the famous tea houses in Japan.  In 1779, whe he was 29 years old, he built Meimei-An over his retainer's house garden in Tono-machi, Matsue City.  In 1928, the Tea house was rebuilt on a hill to the East, next to Kanden-an in Sugata machi.
After World War II, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Matsudaira Fumai's death, Meimei-An was moved to a small mountain near Matsue Castle in 1966 and refurbished.

You can see this view in Meimei-An teahouse.


This entrance is called Nijiriguchi. Here is the final destination from reality to special place. Because of this small entrance, everyone from high status to low must bend over to enter. This creates a humble mood where everyone is equal.

 

As you can see, the entrance to the waiting room is wider than the exit. (there are two girls sitting next to it.) This gives you the feeling that you are going into a special place.

This rock was used to wash hands. It is put next to the entrance to go in the teahouse for noblemans.



 We enjoyed drinking matcha here with a wonderful view of the garden from this room. We felt mental fulfillment here.

Feb 1, 2011

Matsue Wagashi Pamphlet


We made a brochure to intoroduce popular Matsue Wagashi and the history of Matsue Wagashi to people in English. There is also a map of Wagashi shops in Matsue. We made it especially for foreign tourists who go sightseeing in Matsue in hopes that they will become interested in Matsue Wagashi and Matsue city through this brochure.