🍡 Beko Mochi
"Beko mochi" is a local sweet shaped like leaves with branch-like patterns on it with mainly black and white, and has been very familiar with Hokkaido locals. People eat this mochi during the Boy's festival, May 5th in Hokkaido. There is also a sweet called "Beko mochi" in Aomori Prefecture, with same ingredient but different shape and patterns. It is common to see leave-like black and white two color "Beko mochi" but you can find ones with various shapes and colors, especially in the southern Hokkaido. Complete black "Beko mochi" used with brown sugar, colorful ones or "green yomogi" mugwort "Beko mochi", etc… There are also various shapes of mochi, not only leaves but also flower and round-shaped ones. There are some myths about the origin. It is said that a local sweet in Yamagata Prefecture called ‘Kujira mochi' had progressed into leaf-shape in Hokkaido, but there is no evidence. People in some south Hokkaido still call it "Kujira mochi" instead of "Beko mochi" now. Likewise, there are many stories about the origin of the name; it may come from black-and-white color associated with "beko" (= cow in some areas in Japan), mixture of brown sugar looks like "bekkou" (= amber in Japanese), from ingredients "beiko" (= rice flour), etc.