Photo/Illutration “Ohagi” sticky rice balls coated with sweet red bean paste (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

On the Autumnal Equinox 122 years ago, Haiku poet Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) ate “ohagi” sticky rice balls coated with sweet red bean paste while sick in bed with spinal caries.

He penned this poem: “On the Autumnal Equinox, hagi must be the name of this glutinous rice cake.”

According to a diary he kept at the time, he had “one or two ohagi” for lunch, and another as a snack. The latter was homemade ohagi, brought to him by journalist Kuga Katsunan (1857-1907), who was the president of the daily newspaper Nippon and also Shiki’s guardian.

Shiki reciprocated Katsunan’s kindness by gifting him with store-made ohagi. He wrote good humoredly of the give-and-take, “The Autumnal Equinox exchange was ludicrous.”

He also penned this haiku: “Errand runners delivering ohagi on the Autumnal Equinox/ Run into one another.”

Shiki noted he kept eating ohagi the following day and the day after as well. Were they leftovers of Katsunan’s gifts, or brought by his younger sister who was taking care of him?

Shiki died the following year. In his final days, he took his meals despite being racked with pain and nausea. There is something fearsomely intense about his depiction of how he kept eating while hovering between life and death.

Sweet ohagi must have been easy to eat while lying in bed. Shiki apparently loved “wagashi” traditional Japanese sweets. In his diary, he mentioned other popular items such as “yokan” (jellied sweet red bean paste) and “kaichu jiruko” (wafer shell filled with powdered red bean paste and rice crackers).

Ohagi is said to have become popular among the masses during the Edo Period (1603-1867), but the history of Japanese sweets that are still enjoyed today goes back to the Muromachi Period (1336-1573).

Yoshida Kikujiro, the author of “Kokon Tozai Suiitsu Monogatari” (Stories of sweets around the world), notes that types of wagashi, known as “nerigashi” (confectionery with water content of 30 percent or more) and “mochigashi” (made from glutinous rice, non-glutinous regular white rice, kudzu starch, or bracken starch), became refined in aristocratic circles as enhancers of the flavor of “matcha” used in Japanese tea ceremony.

“Good wagashi brings life to tea ceremony,” said the Grand Master of a school of tea ceremony when I interviewed him in the past.

What he meant was that the attractive name or shape of wagashi is a conversation starter. The world of wagashi is profound.

The Autumnal Equinox holiday season is here, and I walked into a neighborhood wagashi shop in search of ohagi. On display were “kuri kinton” (mashed sweet potatoes and chestnuts in syrup), “imo yokan” (yokan made of sweet potatoes instead of red beans) and “kabocha no nerikiri” (pumpkin nerikiri).

It’s still hot, but I realize autumn is already here. Delicately refined wagashi heralds the changing of seasons.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 23

* * *

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

Related News