Seasonal Japanese Sweets (Spring)

There are many Japanese sweets made in the image of seasons, because Japan has four seasons and the Japanese are sensitive to the change of them.
In the seasonal Japanese sweets imaged spring, there are many kinds of them imaged cherry blossoms especially. In addition to this, there are various motifs associated with spring; Japanese apricot, new bamboo shoot which come into bud in spring and so on.

(http://doron.allabout.co.jp/s/060215/)

And there are many Japanese sweets related to the traditional events in spring (March, April and May). The events and its sweets are follows.

*March*

<hina-matsuri >
Hina-matsuri is the dolls' festival on March 3rd. They display hina dolls centering around the doll representing the emperor called obina, and the doll representing the empress called mebina with peach flowers, and enjoy eating and drinking shirozake (sweet white sake). This festival combines playing with the hina dolls and exorcism introduced from China. In the past, they wrote their own birthdays on paper dolls on March 3rd. And they made them their own scapegoats, then, in the evening, they floated them down rivers as they prayed for health. Some Japanese sweets are used as the offerings. For example, uguisu-mochi, sakura-mochi, hishi-mochi and so on. Uguisu-mochi is lapped by gyuhi and shaped like an uguisu (Japanese bush warbler).

(http://www.azabu-aono.com/gift/winter.html)

*May*

<the iris festival>
In the iris festival on May 5, they practice exorcism and avoidance of bad luck with iris and wormwood. Some Japanese sweets have been ate as a celebratory sweets on the day. For example, kashiwa-mochi, chimaki and so on. Kashiwa-mochi is a rice cake wrapped in an oak leaf. By the way, the oak tree have a rare nature. The old leaves never fall before new burgeons have roots in the tree. So it spread as a bringer of good luck which inspired the idea that family line never fails. Chimaki is a rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves. It is said that the custom to eat chimaki on the day is originated from the fact that Qu Yuan, the Chinese patriot poet, died on May 5 and people who loved and respected him threw chimaki into the Miluo river where he jumped into, in order to calm down his soul and as bait for fish so the fish would not eat his body.