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Friday, 7 April 2017

This Japanese family has been making edible art in Tokyo for the last 170 years

Toshio Fukushima and his sons are the fifth- and sixth-generation in their family to run their confectionary in Tokyo where they mainly make and sell the traditional Japanese delicacy known as wagashi. Made from a mix of local ingredients such as white kidney beans and red azuki beans, sugar, and fruit, wagashi’s “sweetness is well controlled in order to make the most of the original flavors” that go into the mix. On top of being a treat for your taste buds though, the wagashi are quite the feast for the eyes. “Our job is to express evocative images of nature that appeal to the sense of sight through wagashi.” Guided by an old handbook written in 1867 and tools that have been passed down through their family, the Fukushima’s make some 200 different shapes and types of wagashi all year-round that “vary in look and taste and express the seasonal changes or flowers,” like the Japanese ume blossoms in January and daffodil blooms in spring. These treats are best enjoyed with a cup of green tea, the experts say. Watch the full clip here (runtime 3:01), but be warned that it is dangerously mouthwatering.

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