Sweet Seasons/November 2005 – Maple –

The beauty of maple leaves in autumn is such a great gift of the nature. Most Japanese maple trees are hardly associated with the concept of harvest as sugar maples may be. Instead, in my very subjective view, they are there just to embody the elegant beauty of changing seasons. As the harvest season nears the end, the gorgeous maple leaves generously color the world so that we can appreciate the precious moments before the arrival of barren winter. The multi-colored maple leaves are often called momiji in Japanese. Momiji originally meant "(any kind of) leaves turned into various colors (not only red but including yellow or brownish orange) in autumn," thus it was not an official name of a specific plant. These days, the word momiji is generally associated with autumn maple leaves. The wagashi in the photo is a layered kanten (agar-agar) jelly, which I think represents maple leaves floating on a gentle stream. The top layer contains tiny maple-leaf shaped jellies in different colors. The middle layer is tsubuan (coarsely mashed azuki bean paste) jelly. The white layer at the bottom seems to be made from domyoji-ko (coarsely ground dried glutinous rice) set with kanten. To make domyoji-ko, glutinous rice is first washed and soaked in water, then steamed, dried and milled. This rice powder gives a nice crumby texture to the kanten jelly, which is pleasant to the palate. The name of the powder is said to have come from a temple in Osaka, Domyoji temple, where the powder was first made. Read More Another wagashi with the theme of momiji. This is nerikiri, the same type of Japanese confectionery as last month's entry. I just love the elegant color gradation on this sweet maple leaf. When I started this monthly calendar project, I had an idea of taking shots of wagashi with real flowers/leaves to make them look tasteful. But after giving it a try a few times, I finally gave up… To me wagashi seems to look most impressive when placed on a simple, black plate. Or maybe some kind of traditional Japanese paper might work... Well, here's a confession to make. I took the shots of these sweets in the beginning of November with my old digital camera. The photos of maple leaves used as “outside drop shadow” around the wagashi photos were taken with my new camera last weekend. So this entry is actually a collaboration of the work of two cameras. Hope you enjoyed it. :) * To see more photos of autumn leaves, click here. Wagashi by Ogasawara and Nishigawaya