🍱 Okaisan/Chagayu

In Wakayama Prefecture, chagayu is affectionately called "okai-san" or "okayu-san. It was created to fill the stomach even with a small amount of rice because rice was precious in this mountainous prefecture, which is also known as "tree country. Especially in the southern part of the prefecture, where there is little flat land suitable for rice cultivation, it was a daily staple food, eaten five or six times a day. In the past, tea trees were also grown at home, supporting the establishment of the chagayu culture. In a song sung in the Inan area, "Today and today, oika de kenka, watashi no oika ni taro ga nai," which indicates that chagayu with sweet potatoes was so popular that siblings would fight over it.