Japan's Sugar & Sweet Traditions

About this book

Japan sweetens in more weathers than any country on earth. In the far south, sugarcane stands in typhoon country and is boiled whole into dark island blocks — kokuto from Okinawa and Amami, each island with its own name and character. In the far north, the sugar beet is sliced and steeped across the Hokkaido plain. Between them, Shikoku workshops still wash wasanbon by hand in three basins of water, producing the snow-pale sugar of the tea ceremony. This complete guide gathers 200 entries on the sugars themselves, the cane islands, the crafts of pressing, washing and boiling, the strange history that carried sugar from apothecary medicine to kitchen staple, the candy and sugar crafts, the regions and makers, the syrups and honeys, and the table where it all arrives. Every entry follows the same four-part format, so a famous wasanbon and an obscure island block can be compared at a glance. No health effects are claimed for any sugar — this is a guide to what these sweeteners are, where they are made, and how to meet them.

Written and created in Japan by Japanese author Aki Wakamatsu. Published by Takikawa TOKOTOKO Kids LLC, a Japanese publisher in Hokkaido, Japan. Authentic Japanese content, carefully made in Japan — not mass-produced.