🍡 Warabimochi
"Warabimochi" is a Japanese confectionary made by adding water and sugar to bracken starch, mixing together while heating, then cooling to a solid shape. Nara is particularly famous for producing bracken starch, so it has become a Nara specialty. Bracken starch is made from the starch contained in bracken roots, and it is extremely rare and valuable because it is laborious to produce and only a small amount can be harvested. For this reason, commercially available "warabimochi" is often made with starch from sweet potato, tapioca, or kudzu. In the past, there was a superstition that you could drive away the monsters that emerged from the Uguisuzuka Tumulus on Mt. Wakakusa by burning the mountain. From this superstition, people who passed Mt. Wakakusa began starting fires, which spread to the Todaiji temple grounds and nearby temples, causing constant danger. Eventually, Todaiji Temple, Kofukuji Temple, and the Nara magistrate's office, which are all adjacent to Mt. Wakakusa, became involved in the mountain burning. Lots of bracken sprang up after the mountain was burned, and the deer in Nara Park did not eat it so it grew in large amounts and eventually became a production area for bracken starch. This gave rise to the "Wakakusa Yamayaki," a traditional event that signals the arrival of spring in the ancient capital of Nara.