🍡 Anmochi zouni

Zoni" is a soup made with white miso paste, round rice cake with sweet bean paste, daikon radish cut into round slices to wish for family happiness, and kintoki carrots. During the Edo period , sugarcane cultivation was encouraged in Kagawa Prefecture, where the climate was mild and rainfall was scarce, as a way to promote agricultural production. White sugar from the Sanuki region was white in color and melt-in-your-mouth, making it one of the three "Sanuki whites" (along with cotton and salt) and a representative of local specialties. Sugar was a precious commodity in those days, and ordinary households could not eat it on a regular basis. It is said that the origin of "Anmochi Zoni" began around the Meiji period when people began to use sugar once a year in Zoni as a special dish for the New Year. It is said that the white miso used in Zoni was brought to Emperor Sutoku, who was defeated in the Hogen Rebellion and exiled to the Sanuki region, by people coming from Kyoto, and has been used and valued in many dishes as a seasoning in winter.