As beautiful as Shoushan stone"｜Yokan

I. What is Yokan

Yokan is a traditional representative of Japanese Wakame, and it has no complicated decorations or fancy shapes. Its beauty lies in its smooth and even surface, soft and delicate, square, as Mr. Natsume Soseki described it, like a mixture of jade and Shoushan stone, which makes people feel very comfortable.

The background of yokan

Yokan was introduced to Japan along with Buddhism during the Tang Dynasty. In the beginning, the main ingredient was mutton, which was boiled into a soup and then cooled into a jelly to be eaten with a meal. However, due to the precepts of monks not to eat meat, it was later steamed with beans and wheat flour to make a pastry-like food. Later, yokan was transformed into a famous tea ceremony snack. In the 17th year of the Tensho era (1589), Kanten powder was added to the original recipe of yokan and bamboo poles were used to fix the shape of the yokan into a rectangle. Since then, it has become translucent and rectangular in shape.