Kanazawa Shop Makes Confectioneries In the Shape of Plum Flowers for New Years

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:09 JST, December 20, 2023

Japanese wagashi sweets shaped like the plum flower in the Maeda clan’s family crest are made in preparation for the New Year at Morihachi, a long-established store in Kanazawa.

The sugar-coated confections called Fukuume are made by filling monaka wafer shells with smashed bean paste that contains starch syrup made from rice. The local practice of eating them on New Year’s Day is said to have started in the late Edo period (1603-1867).

Craftspeople fill them by hand and make up to 24,000 pieces a day.