When I was in Tokyo a while ago with my friends, we bought a bag of little grilled cakes with sweet beans inside. I had always called these things “manju,” but I was corrected and told they were “baby kasutera.” I have since done a little more investigation.
The general phrase wagashi refers to the whole class of Japanese sweets.
Kasutera is the Japanese rendering of “castella,” apparently a type of sponge cake. They are in a subclass of wagashi called yakigashi, “grilled sweets.” The type of wagashi I am used to is called namagashi – “fresh sweets.”- Most of what I make and consume at home are various kinds of dango (simple sweetened pounded rice), or
- daifuku-mochi (the kind with the anko inside).
- I already knew “yokan,” solid bars of bean jelly.
- Toraya’s Namagashi of the month
- Jo-namagashi page made by Japanese students, hosted in Taiwan (?!?)
- Japan Wagashi Association
- Kitchoan’s wagashi page
- Daimatsu World has some links- apparently this guy makes wagashi for a living.
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