History of Japanese Sweets

Welcome to my blog. In this blog, I will present Japanese sweets. At first, about the history of Japanese sweets.


*Ancient times*

Anciently people didn't have enough food and eat nuts, berries and fruits for their snacks, distinguishing form their staple diets. Then they came to call those snacks "sweets". In those days, they had no skills to process food, so they regarded sweets which were originally sweet, as the special food.

Then, they acquired the skills to reserve food. For example, they dried nuts in the sun, and crush them with millstones, rubbing stones and stone hammers. In those days, they ate acorn too, but it has too harshness to eat just as it is. So they crushed and soaked in it to skim lye, make it a ball and heat it. It is said that this is the origin of the current dumplings. In this way, the kinds of the preserved foods have increased.

They also acquired the agricultural technology. And Then, the "rice cake" was made, which is regard as the oldest Japanese processed food. It has rice in it for the ingredients, actually rice is very very important in those days, so the rice cakes were regarded as the divine food.


*The Nara period (710-784)*


In the Nara period, international exchange became more active, many envoys dispatched to China and aggressively imported Chinese civilization. Some of the Chinese sweets were also imported into Japan then. Those were called "baishi", "toshi", "kakko", "keishin", "tensei", "hichira", "tuishi" or "danki". Those are made from rice, wheat, soybeans, azuki beans, fried, characteristic shape. People valued them as the special sweets for festivals. They influenced the current Japanese foods. For examples, rice crackers.


*The Kamakura period (1183-1333)*

In the early Kamakura period (about 1191), the tea ceremony culture was imported by Eisai-Zenshi, and it became popular in Japan. In the tea-ceremony room, some snacks and sweets called "tenshin" were served. For example, bars of sweetened and jellied bean paste, rice cakes sprinkled with soy flour and bean-jam pancakes. They influenced to develop Japanese sweets.


*The Muromachi period (1336-1573)*

In this period, some southern sweets were imported into Japan by Portuguese and Spaniards. Those became the original form of the current Japanese sweets. For example, small round cookies, sponge cakes, confetti and crackers.


*The Edo period (1603-1868)*

During the Edo period, Japanese sweets developed greater. Before this period, Japan was always in civil war and people couldn't have afforded to enjoy eating sweets. But peace returned in this period and those who enjoy eating sweets increased, so the technique to make them progressed rapidly. The whole confectioners competed each other for the device, especially in Edo and Kyoto. And some sweets characteristic of districts made too in those days. Most of Japanese sweets which we eat today were made in those days.

*The Meiji period (1868-1912)*

After reaching the Meiji period, Japan became westernized rapidly and it influenced Japanese sweets very much. What is particularly important was the Western cookwares. For example, oven was imported and many baked sweets came to made.


Like this, Japanese sweets was influenced by various foreign cultures and progressed by it.
Thank you for your reading.