New wave of Japanese sweets is stirring up hidebound business

TOKYO — Name it the nouvelle obscure of wagashi: A handful of time-honored makers of conventional Japanese sweets — small, craftmanship-obsessed confectioneries that usually work with easy components corresponding to bean paste and rice cake — is in search of to open a brand new frontier for the artwork.

One store on the vanguard of this wave is Kashiya Nona, a small wagashi outlet in Kyoto. Because it opened in 2020, the store has attracted a gradual stream of shoppers, each younger and outdated. The most well-liked of its choices, bought year-round, is Antonio and Lara, a dish that includes two items of anko dama, spherical, crimson bean-paste wagashi. The items, one shiny yellow and the opposite black, are surrounded by flower petals and herbs, together with mint and chervil. The dish takes its identify from two characters in “The Improviser,” a novel by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.