March 2025 – Wada Wagashi

handmade wagashi workshop of spring

Hello everyone, You can really feel the signs of spring more and more with each passing day. On March 25th, we held a wagashi (Japanese sweets) workshop with a spring-themed focus. This time, we made two classic seasonal sweets: Ichigo Daifuku (strawberry mochi) and Sakura Mochi (cherry blossom rice cakes). For this session, I intentionally skipped the usual prep work and waited until arriving on-site to measure ingredients and prepare. However, I couldn’t quite get everything ready before the scheduled start time, so things were a bit hectic at the beginning… Even so, we managed to kick things off safely! We started with making the dough for the sakura mochi. […]

Hina matsuri – Girls’ festival

culture / Wada Wagashi

Hello everyone, March 3rd is “Hina Matsuri,” also known as the Girls’ Festival. It is a traditional Japanese celebration wishing for the healthy growth and happiness of girls. During Hina Matsuri, it is customary to display hina dolls and enjoy special foods. Today, I will introduce the origin of Hina Matsuri and how people celebrate it! the origin of hina matsuri The history of Hina Matsuri dates back over 1,000 years to the Heian period. Originally, there was a custom called “Nagashi-bina,” where paper dolls (called hitogata) were floated down rivers to ward off evil spirits. This practice gradually evolved, eventually transforming into the current tradition of displaying hina dolls.。

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