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    Wagashi

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    Bookturnal Place
    Wagashi are traditional Japanese confections served with tea that play an important role in Japanese hospitality rituals and culture. They are works of art inspired by nature's beauty and the seasons. During a tea gathering, the host will carefully prepare the setting and serve wagashi along with tea. Guests appreciate the visual art of the wagashi before inquiring about their poetic names, which provide topics for discussion. Enjoying wagashi involves the eyes, imagination, and finally the senses, with an emphasis on subtlety, emptiness, and mature pleasure over hurried consumption. They represent key aspects of Japanese culture and cannot be merely called "sweets."

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    Wagashi

    Uploaded by

    Bookturnal Place
    213 views2 pages
    Wagashi are traditional Japanese confections served with tea that play an important role in Japanese hospitality rituals and culture. They are works of art inspired by nature's beauty and the seasons. During a tea gathering, the host will carefully prepare the setting and serve wagashi along with tea. Guests appreciate the visual art of the wagashi before inquiring about their poetic names, which provide topics for discussion. Enjoying wagashi involves the eyes, imagination, and finally the senses, with an emphasis on subtlety, emptiness, and mature pleasure over hurried consumption. They represent key aspects of Japanese culture and cannot be merely called "sweets."

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    Japanese Sweets

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    Wagashi are traditional Japanese confections served with tea that play an important role in Japanese hospitality rituals and culture. They are works of art inspired by nature's beauty and the seasons. During a tea gathering, the host will carefully prepare the setting and serve wagashi along with tea. Guests appreciate the visual art of the wagashi before inquiring about their poetic names, which provide topics for discussion. Enjoying wagashi involves the eyes, imagination, and finally the senses, with an emphasis on subtlety, emptiness, and mature pleasure over hurried consumption. They represent key aspects of Japanese culture and cannot be merely called "sweets."

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    213 views2 pages

    Wagashi

    Uploaded by

    Bookturnal Place
    Wagashi are traditional Japanese confections served with tea that play an important role in Japanese hospitality rituals and culture. They are works of art inspired by nature's beauty and the seasons. During a tea gathering, the host will carefully prepare the setting and serve wagashi along with tea. Guests appreciate the visual art of the wagashi before inquiring about their poetic names, which provide topics for discussion. Enjoying wagashi involves the eyes, imagination, and finally the senses, with an emphasis on subtlety, emptiness, and mature pleasure over hurried consumption. They represent key aspects of Japanese culture and cannot be merely called "sweets."

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    Wagashi and the Japanese Tradition

    of Hospitality
    In the last few years, the English term sweets has come to be used in Japanese as
    a hold-all term referring to all kinds of cakes and confectionary. But it seems a
    shame to lump the Japanesewagashi traditionally served with tea into the same
    category. They have a special role in social ritual that makes them quite different.
    This spring, I took part in a round-table on the subject of traditional Japanese
    confectionary culture with the proprietors and artisans of some of Kyotos oldest
    traditional wagashi shops. The colors and forms of the wagashi are inspired by
    motifs celebrating the beauties of nature. The artistry and attention to detail that goes
    into making them is truly remarkable. The artisans who create these edible works of
    art somehow manage to impart into the wagashi the very essence of the seasons
    mountains, fields, rivers, and lakes. You can almost feel the wind and light of the time
    of year. The artisans have an uncanny sensitivity to nature, and live in intimate
    proximity with the changing seasons.
    During the round table, one wagashi maker explained that Traditional wagashi are
    much more than simply a sweet snack. There are part of a culture of hospitality, with
    its precise etiquette and traditions. In Kyoto, the host washes down the area in front
    of the house and lights incense in the entrance porch in anticipation of a visit. The
    ground mustnt be either too wet or too dry when the guest arrives. If the incense is
    lit too soon, the scent will have disappeared by the time the guest arrives. But if the
    smoke is still rising when the guest arrives, that is a discourtesy too. Timing is
    essential. The host arranges a selection of seasonal flowers, and hangs a scroll with
    some kind of relevance to the season, the expected guest, or the topic to be
    discussed.

    Wagashi and the Aesthetics of Minimalism


    When the guest arrives the host serves tea, and then it is time for the wagashi to
    make their appearance. Seasonal motifs are used in the wagashi, as well as elegant
    poetic names. The guest will normally start by admiring the beauty of the design, and
    then ask about the name of thewagashi. This provides a topic for conversation. Many
    of the names allude to lines from classical literature. Finally, the guest raises
    the wagashi to her lips. First one enjoys the wagashi with the eyes. Next comes the
    imaginative enjoyment of the allusions evoked by the nameonly then does one
    enter the world of flavor. The wagashi is not something to be scoffed down as soon
    as it appears. It is a sophisticated pleasure for mature adults, resonant with the
    empty space of the Japanese minimalist aesthetic.

    Cherry Blossoms Against the Sunlight


    The final stage in the ritual of hospitality is the farewell. In Kyoto, it is common in
    private homes and restaurants alike for the host to remain on the threshold until the
    guests are out of sight. Hospitality in Japan is the crystallization of many aspects of
    Japanese culture: courtesy, consideration, and respect for others, along with an
    esthetic enjoyment of nature and the changing seasons, and a culture that esteems
    empty space. As part of such an intricate culture of hospitality, it doesnt seem right
    to refer to traditional wagashi with a common catch-all term like sweets.
    One spring day almost 20 years ago, I came across a beautiful example of the
    Japanese confectioners art in a traditional old shop in Kyoto. It was made of sweet
    white bean paste wrapped in a soft mochi coating called gyhi. I asked about the
    name. Urazakura, the owner told me. Cherry blossoms against the backlit sun. He
    explained that the pink color of the confection was reminiscent of the sunlight shining
    translucent through cherry blossom petals. Such subtlety and depth! In the years
    passed since, I have often remembered the hidden beauty of those cherry blossoms
    against the sunlight, symbol of Japanese beauty.
    (Originally written in Japanese on May 8, 2013.)

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