🍚 Kanzarashi (Sweet glutinous rice flour dumplings)

"Kanzarashi" is a traditional sweet that has been made in the entire area of Shimabara City for a long time. In the past, the common people in Shimabara couldn't afford to eat the rice, which they had to pay as taxes, and instead relied on eating crushed rice as their staple food. They ground it into rice flour that could be stored for a long time, and cooked and ate it each time. Rice flour also tends to go bad in summer. Therefore, people began to make dumplings, preserve them in spring water, and eat them. In the area, clear underground water gushed out from dozens of locations because of crustal deformation caused by the Shimabara Earthquake of 1792 (during the 4th year of the Kansei era in the Edo period), and this was the wisdom of people who made use of this water. Moreover, the Shimabara had a thriving sugar production environment. Eventually, the common people began making cold sweets using dumplings made of shiratamako (=glutinous rice flour) and sugar syrup. They started serving these sweets to summer visitors, which is said to be the origin of "Kanzarashi". In the past, the crushed glutinous rice ("Kuzumai") from the raw material of Mochi (=rice cake) was ground with a stone mill around the coldest days of winter called "Daikan". The sediment from this process was then dried to make shiratamako (=glutinous rice flour). It is said that the name "Kanzarashi" originated from this practice.