VOL.200 FEBRUARY 2025
HISTORIC JAPANESE PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE OF THE MODERN ERA [Treasures of Japanese Culture] Sweet Treats Unique to Japan, Recommended by an Italian Food Writer

Dango (rice flour dumplings), with their delightfully chewy texture. With numerous dango types and toppings available, dango can be enjoyed in many different flavors. The photo shows three colors of dango (pink, white, and green) strung together on a single skewer.

Massimiliano Sgai, who comes from Italy, has written articles and books about Japanese food, bringing together topics from both inside and outside Japan. We interviewed him about some of the Japanese sweet treats that he recommends to tourists from overseas when they visit Japan.

Whenever Japanese sweet treats are mentioned, the first one that comes to mind is dango¹ (rice flour dumplings). Featuring a variety of toppings, these cute-looking wagashi (traditional Japanese sweets) are one of Japan’s delicious surprises, satisfyingly filling due to the rice flour they are made of. There are countless varieties, including mitarashi-dango,² san-shoku dango³ and yomogi-dango, ⁴ with regional variations of these found, as well. Enjoying some dango with a cup of Japanese green tea is a way to truly savor the best that Japan has to offer. When I first tried dango many decades ago, what surprised me was the way you can get a sense of the changing seasons from such a small, sweet snack. I am always looking forward to the limited-edition seasonal flavors that can only be eaten at particular times of year, including Japanese chestnut, cherry blossom, watermelon and sweet potato. While no doubt many non-Japanese are initially surprised at the soft texture of dango as they bite into it, many become quite addicted once they have given this sweet snack a try.

Another dessert that every visitor should try is kakigori⁵ (shaved ice), often seen in summertime. Having often eaten Italy’s granita,⁶ I can still remember how I enjoyed the simplicity and flavor of Japanese kakigori. The secret of Japanese kakigori’s delicious flavor lies not so much in the flavors or toppings, but in the quality of the freshly-made shaved ice and the water used for making it. Time is taken to slowly freeze the pure, clear water into ice, which is then carefully shaved and formed into beautiful shapes, with a choice of flavors and toppings poured over the top to finish. Presented in the form of a rounded fluffy white cloud that is enjoyable, this exciting desert offers a moment of pleasure that makes feel like you are in an amusement park, even before you taste it.

Another Japanese dessert that I like to enjoy all year round is kintsuba. Kintsuba is a wagashi with a square or round shape, made by simmering azuki beans and other ingredients into a sweet paste called anko⁷ and making it into shapes, which are coated in a thin wheat crust and baked on a teppan or hot plate. Kintsuba is a very simple wagashi composed almost entirely of anko that is bound together with kanten or agar-agar,⁸ yet the texture and sweet flavor of these attractive sweets can be quite habit-forming for those who try them. The city of Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture, where I currently live, has a wagashi store which makes superb kintsuba and is known as one of the three finest kintsuba producers in Japan. A town with a long history which is also renowned as a producer of wagashi, Kanazawa truly feels like the perfect place to enjoy Japanese sweets. One more wagashi in Kanazawa that I would like to recommend is “Shibafune,” a well-known traditional sweet snack. A senbei (rice cracker) with a unique texture and flavor is topped with the coating that mixes ginger syrup and sugar; the sweet yet refreshing taste and the depth of flavor coming from the ginger create an indescribably delicious snack.

Last of all, I hope visitors will try taiyaki, a snack cake baked in the shape of a sea bream. These hot wheat-flour batter cakes, packed with anko, are a popular sweet snack among most Japanese. There are many other flavors too, with some taiyaki containing custard cream, chocolate, matcha⁹ or other fillings instead of anko. I can never resist buying a taiyaki wherever I come across them being sold, and I always eat it immediately.

Enjoying Japanese sweet treats and wagashi with an open mind and without making comparisons with those of one’s own country not only adds to the joy of your trip, but will also help you develop deeper connections with Japan itself.

Massimiliano Sgai
Originally from Italy, Massimiliano Sgai now lives in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture. He graduated from the Department of Japanese Language of the faculty of Letters at the Graduate School of the University of Turin, and moved to Japan in 2007. After gaining experience as a Japanese-Italian interpreter, he went on to work as a food and lifestyle writer. He is the author of the book, Italia-jin Massi ga Buttonda, Nihon no Kami-gurume (“Japan’s Divine Culinary Treats That Astonished the Italian, Massi”) (KADOKAWA), as well as a number of magazine articles and serialized columns. He writes about the fascinating differences between Italian and Japanese culture, the appeal of Japanese food, and delicious food arrangements from an Italian’s point of view. His long-selling series The Complete Guide to Saizeriya (note) has over 1.5 million page views. Currently, he is involved in a variety of activities ranging from writing serialized columns and essays to planning and copywriting.

• 1.Dango are small dumplings created by kneading together rice flour (and sometimes flour made from other grains) with water and shaping it into balls, which are then steamed or boiled. They are characterized by their chewy texture; several dango are often threaded onto a skewer to be eaten. They are sometimes served with anko (created by simmering and pounding azuki beans and other ingredients in a sweet sauce), sprinkled with sugar and kinako (a powder created by roasting and grinding soybeans), or grilled and coated with soy sauce.
• 2.Mitarashi-dango are seasoned with a sweet-tasting sauce made from soy sauce and sugar.
• 3.San-shoku dango means three colored dumplings. They are often eaten at hanami, when people gather to admire the cherry blossoms in spring. Usually, three dango in pink, white and green are threaded onto a single skewer.
• 4.Yomogi-dango are created by working yomogi paste into the dango mixture. Yomogi or mugwort is one of Japan’s most representative herb, and a perennial herb from the Artermesia genus, part of the Asteraceae family.
• 5.Kakigori is a frozen dessert created by finely shaving ice and pouring syrup and other ingredients over it.
• 6.Granita is a frozen dessert from the islands of Sicily in Italy. Created by freezing syrups flavored with fruit juice and the like, and then finely crushing the flavored ice, granita is a chance to enjoy a crunchy texture.
• 7.Anko is created by simmering azuki beans and other ingredients in a sweet sauce and kneading them into a paste. Tsubuan is created by leaving the beans in their original form with skins intact; koshian is created by removing the skins.
• 8.Kanten or agar-agar is created by simmering red algae and other ingredients, and freezing and drying the resulting broth. It is white at first, but after being simmered and cooled once again forms a translucent gel.
• 9.Matcha is created by picking and refining the youngest tea leaves, and grinding them to a powder with a millstone. This powder can be dissolved in hot or cold water as a drink, or used to flavor sweet items.

By Massimiliano Sgai
Photo: Massimiliano Sgai; PIXTA