626 



mixed with yama imo , or nagai imo , wild or long potato, which 

 when grated gives a foamy, ropy cream and is all the liquid 

 needed to make a thick dough. Rounds of this well kneaded 

 dough are deftly worked over a ball of bean paste and the 

 dumplings are steam cooked in wooden trays. The thin tough 

 rice membrane holds the paste in any shape it is moulded to 

 and is a surface easily tinted or worked upon with relief 

 devices. The dumplings are very often flattened out like 

 muffins and toasted a rich brown which deceives many a 

 stranger. 



Yckan or bean jelly is made by adding kanten, a gelatine 

 derived from sea weed, to the sweetened paste with a little 

 water. It is poured into wooden boxes to cool and cut into 

 slabs eight inches long and two inches wide, wrapped in dry 

 bamboo husk and sold In thin wood or paper boxes. Neither 

 the bean paste or the jelly will keep for any time, the yokan 

 soon crystallizing on the outside and in time drying as hard 

 as a stone in cold weather, or moulding in hot weather. Bits 

 of candied chestnuts are sometimes added to yokan and there is 

 kuri yokan made entirely of chestnuts, which costs three times 

 as much as the plain bean yokan, but is warranted to keep for 

 a long time. O'cha yokan is white bean paste strongly 

 flavored and colored with powdered green tea leaves; and there 

 is a kake yokan, a bright orange yellow jelly made of fresh 

 persimmons with a little of bean paste and kanten gelatine. 

 These tea and persimmon jellies are specialties of the Uji tea 

 district and of Ogaki and Gifu and are attractively offered 

 for sale at those railway stations in sections of split bamboo 

 stem into which the jelly is poured to cool. 



Adzuki are toasted or popped as we treat our dwarf 

 Indian corn, but the grains do not open so widely. They are 

 eaten merely toasted or they are salted or sugared over, or 

 welded into an adzuki brittle with a syrup of ame (barley 

 honey) . 



Kuro mame, (S. P.I. No. 34645) or black beans, are made 

 into paste and also yokan, in the same way as the adzuki. 

 Kuro mame boiled with a little soda to soften their obdurate 

 skin, with a pinch of salt and a big pinch of sugar added, 

 after the water is poured off, are a favorite relish with 

 flesh or fowl, and are always found in one corner of the 

 dainty bento or luncheon box sold at railway stations. These 

 kurc mame are more particularly the good luck bean than any of 

 the others, and are a necessary accompaniment of the New Year 

 feast . 



The tender young Sora mame (S. P. I. No. 34646) are the 

 favorite beans for popping. None of these toasted or popped 

 beans foam out into the great white starchy kernels like pop 



