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mixed with yama imo, or nagal 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 . 
Yokan 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 copl. 
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 
kuro 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 
