🍱 Hooba Maki

Hooba maki is a traditional festive rice cake in the Kiso region. It is made by mixing rice flour with boiling water, kneading it well, filling it with bean paste, wrapping it in a Hooba leaf, and finally steaming it. In the Kiso region, Tango-no Sekku (Boys' Festival) is celebrated on June 5, a month later than usual. Around that time, "Hooba maki" are made. Kashiwa-mochi, or oak rice cakes, are a traditional Japanese sweet made on Tango-no Sekku, but in the Kiso region, where oak trees do not grow at high altitudes, people have started to use magnolia leaves instead. In the early part of June, the young leaves of the magnolia tree grow and spread, making it suitable for wrapping things. The leaves are connected to the ends of the twigs, and each leaf is used to wrap a rice cake, leaving it connected without cutting it. The rice cake is filled with azuki bean paste or crushed red bean paste, and the leaves are tied together with fresh weeds or straw. The steamed Hooba maki is a celebratory rice cake with the distinctive fragrance of fresh young leaves. Nowadays, yuzu miso (soybean paste) starchy sauce and white miso walnut starch sauce are also available, and each household and store has its own unique way of making them. Hooba maki can be found in many stores throughout the town, and has become a unique early summer tradition in the Kiso area. The origin of Hooba maki is said to date back to the late Heian period (794-1185), when Kiso Yoshinaka, a member of the Shinano Genji clan, used magnolia leaves to wrap miso and rice when going to war. The magnolia is a deciduous tree of the magnolia family, and has the largest leaves and flowers of any tree found in the mountains. Its large leaves are 40 cm(15 inches) long and 25 cm(9 inches) wide. The leaves have antiseptic properties and have been used to wrap food since ancient times.