🍚 Tenko azuki no Sekihan(Red Rice with Black-eyed Peas)

Akita's sekihan (red rice). Japan's sekihan culture has regional distinctions and cuisines; it is an indispensable food for auspicious days and celebrations. The origin of sekihan is said to be a relic from the ancient rice (akagome) that was offered to the gods, the ancestor to modern rice and a near-red color, or because red is used to dispel evil spirits. Until the Edo period, it was normal to eat ancient rice, but with technological developments in selective breeding, rice has transformed into its current-day strain. However, since the custom of offering red rice to the gods and then eating it was deeply ingrained, sekihan, white rice dyed with azuki beans, began to spread in the mid-Edo period. Akita has a dearly loved bean nicknamed "tenko azuki" (black-eyed pea), which is used there for sekihan. Akita's sekihan is also unique in that it uses sugar, which is different from typical sekihan. Black-eyed peas bleed color better than typical azuki beans, and because people dislike using the split hulls of azuki beans for the auspicious sekihan, they used black-eyed peas whose skin stays intact and doesn't easily split. The slightly purple-tinged color of sekihan made with black-eyed peas is unique to Akita. Sekihan is made without exception for Obon, New Year's, and important ceremonies in the family, and there is also the custom of eating it as "kokuhan" (black rice) on the sad occasions of observing the peaceful death of someone who has respectably lived their natural span of life.