🍱 Akaneko

This dish is made from steamed glutinous rice and flour, which is then sprinkled with sugar and kinako. It is also referred to as "Hagessho mochi." Because it contains flour, the texture is less sticky compared to just glutinous rice, so you can enjoy a more crispy texture. Hagessho refers to the 11th day of the summer solstice from July second to July seventh. Farmers finish planting rice around this time period, so there was a custom to make "Akaneko" from the harvested wheat collected before planting rice, and the glutinous rice harvested in the previous year. This dish is eaten in appreciation of completing the rice planting and to pray for a good harvest. The homemade flour of that time was brown, since the entire grain was ground into a powder. The resulting mochi was brown, and the appearance of the finished dish resembled "a cat's round back," so it came to be called "Akaneko (neko meaning cat)."