6月に開催した御菓子司に習う 雨の季節を彩る和菓子づくりの
ご感想をお寄せいただきました。
Making (Decorating) of WAGASHI was so fantastic!!
I love “WAGASHI” or the traditional Japanese confectionery.
The delicate colors and shapes are so cute, and the elegant and rich taste of sweet bean paste are wonderful.
I had always wanted to try to make WAGASHI once. Finally, I found this workshop entitled “The making of WAGASHI that adds color to the rainy season.” You can learn from a Japanese confectionery craftsman.
They said that you can get a hands-on experience of the final processes of making two kinds of typical Japanese sweets called Nerikiri (a cake made of white bean paste which is artistically colored or shaped) and one original Nerikiri in just a two-hour class. That sounded wonderful!! So, I took part in the coursewith my daughter who just turned 6 years old and began interested in cooking sweets lately.
The venue KOMINKA (a traditional old house) Gallery located very close to Shin-Okachimachi station, Ooedo Line had an atmosphere of traditional culture, which increased our motivation.
The lecturer for the day was Mr. Hiroshi Kurita, the owner of an old Japanese confectioner “KIKUDSUKI” in Hongo, Bunkyo word, Tokyo for more than 50 years.
He was gentle and his talk was interesting and informative.
He said, “WAGASHI has also a literary calendar, which means season-specific sweets. Therefor the most important in the making of Japanese sweets is to get to anticipate slightly the following season. For example, on the New Year, (those sweets which expressed) the plum blossoms and narcissuses are placed beautifully in the shelves of the Japanese-style sweets stores.”
He also said that there are only three major ingredients for WAGASHI, and those are rice, sugar, and been. Nevertheless, the shaping idea for exquisite and graceful WAGASHI reflecting the seasonal beauty is infinite, he said. That’s amazing!!
Then we immediately started to shape and decorate the first tiny cake called “YOHIRA”, another name of the hydrangea, meaning four petals,
In this course, colored sweet white bean-paste balls (shiro-an) and sweet red bean-paste balls (kuro-an, or anko-dama) had been already prepared (and those were KIKUDUKI’s special bean jam), so participants were able to devote themselves to enjoy decorating and finishing their cake.
First, Mr.Kurita demonstrated how to make the cake. The Kuro-an on his left palm was wrapped up with beautiful purple shiro-an in no time and some cuts were made on it and was completed into a beautiful flower cake where the stamen, pistil and a leaf were put on top of it. It was finished in just a few seconds.
Though it was not that easy for us, the actual work was really fun!! It can be said that this is similar to clay modeling. Since the paste easily sticks to the hand, wet washcloth came in handy. We were excited at the softness and the beautiful pastel color of the bean jam.
The second cake was called “KINTON”, a cake coated with minced white sweet bean paste.We chose our favorite color jam balls freely and pushed them out of a strainer in order to get some minced bean paste. Then we put them to the red-bean- jam ball with chopsticks to form the flower, hydrangea for this time. It seemed to be simple, but actually it requires a skillful technique to put them softly and three-dimensionally. We couldn’t help admiring Mr. Kurita’s skill in the demonstration.
Finally, we tried to make our own original one. Mr. Kurita was kind enough to create any color we wanted by mixing some food coloring agent for our special one.
After we were done, we enjoyed our wonderful miniature works with green tea. They were really good! My daughter and I were so happy to somehow make such a lovely WAGASHI. Participants could take their WAGASHI home up to 4 pieces and put it in a special case.
Ms. Shimofuji and Mr. Kawai (promoters of this event), did a fantastic job preparing and helping us. So the class had a cozy atmosphere from the beginning to the end.
Through this experience, I thought I could rediscover the charm of the Japanese confectionery, which is the unique gift of Japan’s distinct four seasons.
I also think that the workshops by Denmira are of reasonable time and price, so they are ideal for people, including parent and child, who wants to try some Japanese culture from artisan.
I would recommend Denmira’s workshops!
Thank you for such a quality time!!
和菓子の繊細な色や形、上品な餡子の味が大好き。
一度は和菓子（生菓子）を作ってみたいと思っていたところ、でんみらさんのワークショップを発見！
講座は、2時間で練り切り2種（×２）+自由製作の５つを製作というもので、季節の和菓子（練り切り）を職人さんに習って自分で作れる（しかも短時間で！）と聞き、
お菓子作りに興味のある6歳になったばかりの娘とさっそく参加してみました。
会場が大江戸線新御徒町から徒歩すぐの古民家ギャラリーというのも、
和の雰囲気が醸し出されてテンションが上がります。
教えてくださったのは文京区本郷で創業50年以上の老舗和菓子屋・「御菓子司 喜久月」を営む栗田洋さん。
穏やかな語り口の優しい先生で、和菓子のお話も巧みです。
「…和菓子には歳時記があり、季節の先取りこそ和菓子の命。
年が明けるともう梅や水仙が菓子屋の店先には咲きほころびます…。
そんな和菓子の材料は、基本的には米、砂糖、豆のたった3種類。
そこからどんな和菓子を作り出すか、季節を感じさせる造形は無限です…」
なんて聞くと、小さな和菓子に壮大な宇宙を感じてしまいます。
そして1種目の練り切り「四葩（よひら）」（紫陽花の別称）の製作へ。
といっても、
今回は色のついた白餡のあんこ玉と小豆餡（黒餡）のあんこ玉が、
喜久月さんの美味しい餡で既に用意されているので、参加者は整形に集中できます。
まずは栗田先生のお手本を拝見。
手の平に置かれた黒餡がパステルカラーのあんこ玉に
あっという間にくるまれ、
筋をつけられ、葉っぱがついて美しい和菓子に変身！
完成までわずか数秒です！
実際やってみると、ちょっとした粘土細工のような感覚ですが、
餡が手にくっつきやすく（そこで濡れ布巾の出番）、
なかなか思ったようにはいきません。
それでも娘と一緒に柔らかな餡にドキドキしながら作るのは楽しく、
本当に繊細にできている和菓子がとっても愛おしくなってきます。
続いてキントンでつくる紫陽花。
７色のあんこ玉から自由に選んで重ねたり混ぜたりして好みの色を出し、
濾し器から押し出してキントンを作り、
箸で黒餡にくっつけて花の形に整形するのですが、
これが単純に見えて実はふんわりと立体的に付けるのが難しく、
栗田先生の鮮やかな手さばき箸さばきに感嘆するばかり。
最後の自由製作では、
参加者の希望する色を先生が四色の食紅から作り出して白いあんこ玉に混ぜてくださるのも嬉しいサービスでした。
私の最後の白いあんこ玉は、
「濃いめの赤にしてもらおう」とつぶやいて先生の元に走った娘に奪われたきりでしたが……。
完成後は、
美味しい新茶と一緒に自作を頂き、
華やかで見栄えのする2種を曲がりなりにもつくれるようになったことに満足感もひとしお。
先生もでんみらの下藤さん、河合さんも、
参加者に楽しんでもらいたいという気持ちにあふれていて、終始とても雰囲気がよかったです。
今回、自分が体験することで、
四季がある日本ならでは和菓子の魅力を再発見！
自分も楽しめ、
また子供にも伝えたいと思う日本の伝統を
プロの職人さんに教えてもらえる、
1回完結型のでんみらさんのワークショップは
お手頃でお勧めです。
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会場：作れる雑貨店 う布ふカフェ
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でんみらブログ（2018.7.8）⇒ http://blog.denmira.jp/?eid=403
