🍱 Azuki Hoto

"Hoto" originated as something eaten in a red bean soup in the Heian Period, as recorded in the diaries of aristocrats. In Yamanashi after the Edo period, it was common to eat "hoto" stewed in miso, but "azuki hoto" was eaten during celebrations like New Year's and Obon as well as regional events such as during rice planting season. "Azuki hoto" is served at the festival held at the end of July every year at Miwa Shrine in Sutamacho Wakamiko, Hokuto City, which is why the festival is also called "Hoto Festival." The red color of azuki beans is said to have the power to drive away noxious vapors and ward off evil, so people offered fresh azuki beans and flour before altars, ate the "azuki hoto" served, and gave thanks for the harvest. Originally mochi was put into azuki bean soup, but rice is extremely precious in in Yamanashi Prefecture, whose land is largely unsuitable for the cultivation of rice, so "hoto" noodles were cut thickly and treated as a mochi substitute in sweet azuki bean soup.