Dig Japan vol.19 “Warabimochi (わらび餅)”

Warabimochi is soft and melt-in-your-mouth wagashi made with bracken-root starch. It is common to eat it with soybean flour, matcha powder, or kuromitsu syrup. Some wagashi shops make their own warabimochi by mixing or substituting other starches to make it last longer. In some areas, there are peddlers who sell warabimochi only during the summer or irregularly, making it a symbol of summer.

Warabiya-honpo's warabimochi (Photography via Warabiya-honpo)

Warabimochi is one of wagashi that has been loved by Japanese people since ancient times. There is a record that Emperor Daigo (reigned 897-930) liked warabimochi and gave it the rank of “Tayu,” refers titles or honorifics of certain types of entertainers, priests, prostitutes and so on.

There is also a legend that warabimochi was an emergency food for farmers suffering from poor harvests. Warabimochi is also known as a specialty of Hisaka-juku on the Tokaido road (present-day Hisaka, Kakegawa City, Shizuoka Prefecture), and a song about warabimochi can be found in Tani Soboku's “Togoku kiko,” written in 1544-1545.

The Kakegawa area is also famous for producing kudzu cloth, which has been featured in songs since the Kamakura period. In addition, in the “Heishin kiko,” written by Hayashi Razan in 1616, states that kudzu starch is mixed into warabimochi, a specialty of the Hisaka inn on the Tokaido road, which suggests that warabi starch was a valuable commodity even in the Edo period.

A wagashi confectioner, Kikutaro's warabimochi (Photography via Kikutaro)

Warabimochi is considered a Japanese summer sweet, and in some areas it is only sold during the summer or is sold irregularly, making it a symbol of summer. For instance, in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, there are peddlers who sell warabimochi on a cart, although this has been declining in recent years.

They prepare warabimochi early in the morning and sell them at stores and regular customers' homes from around noon. They generally sell them from May to early September. In Nagoya City and Osaka Prefecture, there are mobile vendors that sell warabimochi while playing loud advertisements from speakers.

In Sumida Ward, Tokyo, there is a kibidango specialty store called “Kibikoya,” which operates a mobile sales business in the Yanesen area about once every two weeks. Although it is irregular, depending on the weather, Kibikoya sells skewered warabimochi and kibi dango from a handcart while beating a drum.

Nara Prefecture is famous for producing bracken flour, and there are many famous warabimochi shops there, as well as in nearby Kyoto. In Kyoto, warabimochi stuffed with bean paste is also popular, but it is not sold much in the summer because it is not suitable for storage.

This article was written by 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐨, working as a freelance translator and press for overseas apparel brands in Japan, with the purpose of broadening her insight into the Japanese traditional culture.