Seasonal Japanese Sweets (Autumn)

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.
Autumn is the season that people could harvest the most kinds of fruits and nuts in a year. So there are many autumn Japanese sweets used those harvest as motifs and ingredients. For example, kaki (Japanese persimmon), satsumaimo (sweet potato), gin'nan (ginkgo nuts) and kuri (chestnuts).  Especially, chestnuts are used to make them. The examples are kuri-manju (buns with bean-jam filling and chestnuts) and kuri-yokan (bar of sweet jellied azuki-bean paste which contain chestnuts).

(http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/kty360/36045592.html)

And there are many Japanese sweets related to the traditional events in autumn (September, October and November). The events and its sweets are follows.

*September and October*


<otsukimi>
Otsukimi is the moon-viewing party in the night with a full moon in September. People offer Japanese pampas grass, dumplings, eddo and so on, and enjoy viewing the full moon. There are various Japanese sweets associated with otsukimi, among them, there are many sweets whose motif is rabbit. The reason for this is that the Japanese imagine a rabbit making mochi (rice cakes) when they see the full moon.

(http://www.cims.jp/moon/rabidance/subhtml/toyhtml/tukimi.html)