Manjū

Manjū(饅頭; まんじゅう) is a traditional Japanese confection, usually a small, dense bun with a sweet filling. They come in many shapes and varieties.

The standard manjū has a skin made of flour, and is filled with anko (sweet azuki bean paste). Some varieties use kudzu starch or buckwheat flour for the skin. Other types of filling include sweet potato, chestnut jam, or custard.

Manjū is usually steamed or baked, though fried manjū can be found in some modern restaurants. Traditional manjū are usually round, but many different shapes exist today, and some are proprietary to specific bakeries.

History

Manju is a traditional Japanese flour-based pastry (instead of rice-based like mochi). During the Kamakura period (1185–1333), Japanese Buddhist monks who studied in the Song dynasty brought the tea culture to Japan, and the custom of eating confections with tea began in Japan. The monks also introduced tenshin(点心, dim sum), a light meal, and the history book Teikun ōrai(庭訓往来) (c.1394–1428) mentions udon, manjū, and yōkan as types of dim sum.

There are two major claims regarding who may have introduced the manjū from China (called mantou in Chinese, also written 饅頭). One claim is that when the Zen priest Enni returned from China in 1241, he introduced manjū production techniques during his stay in Hakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, revealing the recipe to a teahouse owner (named Kurinami Kichiemon(栗波吉右衛門)). As the story goes, Enni had built Jōten-ji, a temple of the Rinzai sect in Hakata, and while making his takuhatsu (begging rounds), he became acquainted with this generous shopkeeper near Mount Aratsu[ja], west of Hakata. Kichiemon's shop name (yagō) was Toraya, and it is further claimed that the teahouse shop owner received from the priest Enni a hand-written signboard with the words "Omanjū Dokoro" ("Place to Eat Manjū"), which has been handed down and is now in possession of Toraya Confectionery at its main branch in Akasaka, Tokyo. There is also a stone monument in the garden of Jōten-ji temple that commemorates the introduction of manjū to Japan.

The other claim credits the introduction to Rin Jōin (i.e. Lin Jingyin, 林浄因), a Chinese native who came to Japan in 1341 as an attendant of Ryūsan Tokuken[ja]. More specifically, this is the root origin of the so-called Shiose manjū[ja], Shiose being the surname adopted by Lin and his descendants, which also became the name of the manjū shop founded by this family orignally in Nara, and later in Kyoto and Edo.

The recipes of the two claims are different. The Hakata manjū calls for a sake-starter (i.e. kōji mold culture) as leavening agent, while the original Shiose recipe was based on an yeast starter of fermented dough called lao mien (老麺) kneaded into the final dough, and the manjū skin is then wrapped around an adzuki bean paste. Even the original version was sweetened with amazura[ja] (vine sap) with a hint of salt, according to a book authored by the head of the Shiose proprietorship, though at least one scholar assumes the original must have been salt flavored (unsweetened). The standard explanation is that the Chinese version at the time typically used meat fillings, which the ascetic (Zen) monk could not offer for tea service, so that it necessarily got converted to a vegetarian version using beans.

The Sōgo ōzōshi(宗五大草紙) (1528) illustrates in simple line drawing that 3 pieces of manjū were served in each bowl, and placed on a tray alongside chopsticks, bowl of soup, and pickles. The etiquette for eating the manjū was to split one piece, and eating one half while placing the remaining half alongside the other manjū in the bowl, although if preferred (or if a mature adult person is eating), one may eat the whole manjū in a single bite. Also, the manjū are to be served in a rice bowl but covered by a soup bowl lid on top.

Another late Muromachi source, the Shokunin utaai ehon(職人歌合画本) writes that sweetened sugar manjū and vegetable manjū both need to be steamed thoroughly.

Modern terminology

In current Japanese parlance, 饅頭 is usually read "manjū" meaning a confection (sweets) with fillings, but it can also be read as "mantō" to mean the Chinese steamed bread mantou without any fillings, consumed as staple food rather than as sweets.

Also, while manjū is generally taken to mean a confection (a type of sweets), although the nikuman (short for "meat manjū") is considered to be a snack. The nikuman is glossed as being equivalent to Chinese baozi (or just bao), though the nikuman is consistently more savory, compared with the Chinese char siu bao which is more salty-sweet.

Varieties

Myriad varieties of manjū exist, some more common than others.

Varieties of skin

The most common type of manjū uses wheat flour-based skin or crust, which are steamed and thus called mushi manjū. However, if the flour-based dough uses sakadane (sake starter, i.e. kōji mold) as leavening agent, the steamed manjū is referred to as saka manjū(酒饅頭). There is also a type called the jōyo manjū(薯蕷饅頭) which uses dough combined with grated yamaimo[ja] (general term for yam or Dioscorea spp.). It is tsukune imo (Chinese yam) typically used, with the purpose of making the dough rise fluffier.

Matcha (green tea) manjū is one of the most common variation on the basic crust, in this case, the outside of the manjū has a green tea flavor and is colored green.[citation needed]

Varieties of fillings

The most common filling (an) is adzuki an (red bean paste), but sweet bean paste of other beans are also used (such as white shiro an[ja], usually from ingen or navy beans), as well as imo an (sweet potato paste).

The adzuki red bean paste may be cruder tsubu an (aka tsubushi an), which is a "with pulp" version that still has bits of beans left in the paste, or smoother koshi an which have been strained through.

The sekihan manjū uses sekihan (red bean rice) as filling.

The banana manjū[ja] of Ikeda, Hokkaido is banana-shaped manjū that uses banana flavoring in the white bean paste filling. It began sales at the train station's opening in 1904.

A proprietor of the momiji manjū ("maple leaf" shaped manjū) of Hiroshima has come up with a seasonal variety filled with mikan orange cream.

Kuzu manjū

The specialty shops in Obama, Fukui offer kuzu manjū that are not steamed but processed by placing the dissolved kuzu starch and bean paste into molds, then cooling these in cold water tanks. Traditionally, the confection has been molded using largeish choko (sake cup) molds, and chilled in water tubs fed with welling spring water. It has a gelatinous outer texture, and translucent revealing the an (bean paste) inside.

Mizu manjū[ja] ("water manjū", shown right) is a specialty item of Ōgaki, Gifu, and can be identically described as the aforementioned kuzu manjū, except that the recipe calls for an addition of warabiko ("bracken starch") into the kuzu starch mix which is supposed to help keep the product from turning watery as it is also chilled in water tanks fed by spring or river water. It also has a translucent, jelly-like appearance.

According to 1920s cook book, a kuzu manjū of a sort can be recreated at home by dissolving kuzu starch, wrapping bean paste into this skin or dough, and steaming. Nowadays, prepackaged quick mixes called Mizu manjū no moto are sold in stores, with pre-combined kudzu starch, other starches, and agar for easy preparation at home.

Regional manjū

As is the case with many Japanese foods, in some parts of Japan, one can find manjū unique to that region.

The maple leaf-shaped momiji manjū (q.v., shown right) in Hiroshima and Miyajima is fairly well-known.

The usukawa manjū[ja] (shown left) is a specialty of Kōriyama, Fukushima, made at the shop Kashiwaya[ja] founded in 1852. It is so named due to the thin skin wrapped around the sweet bean paste. It has a distinctive dark brown skin, since the dough is blended with dark brown sugar (Japanese kurozatō[ja]) and syrup; the thin skin is then wrapped around ample amounts of koshi-an (strained red bean paste) filling. The shop also now offers a tsubu-an (unstrained paste) variety.

Kashiwaya's usukawa manjū is promoted as being one of the "3 great manjū of Japan", the others being the aforementioned Shiose manjū[ja] now based in Tokyo (shown lower left), and the Ōte manjū[ja] made by Ōte Manjū Inbeya[ja] of Okayama City. The three were named in a 1993 book compilation themed on top 3 rankers of various categories.

The Jūmangoku manjū[ja] (lit.'100,000-koku manjū'), a type of jōyo manjū (yam manjū) offered by a proprietor based in Gyōda, Saitama, has become a specialty representative of the whole Saitama Prefecture.

Although hōraku manjū(蜂楽饅頭) (shown right) bears manjū in its name, this local slang around Kumamoto Prefecture for what is otherwise known as imagawayaki in Tokyo, etc., (Thus it hardly really counts as a subtype of manjū). The hōraku manjū is described as a confection made by a proprietorship in Minamata, Kumamoto, where honey-added bean paste gets dropped inside the batter poured into hot plate molds, and fried into round shapes; the fillings may be black bean paste using adzuki or white bean paste using ōtebo(大手亡) (large-sized variety of white common bean).

In Hawaii, one can find Okinawan style manjūthat are made with a filling of purple sweet potato (i.e. beni-imo or ube).

Manjū

History

Modern terminology

Varieties

Varieties of skin

Varieties of fillings

Kuzu manjū

Regional manjū

Gallery

See also

Explanatory notes

Citations

Bibliography

External links