Shiratama white dumplings

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Shiratama white dumplings

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: All summer
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation



Shiratama 白玉 (しらたま) Shiratama Dango
"white treasure, white pearls"

They make you feel cool in summer and are often served in a glass bowl to enhance the cool feeling. They are a snack taken between meals, sometimes as a desert. Sweet brown-sugar syrup is poored over the chilled dumplings.
They can be combined with fruit, red azuki beans, ice cream or jelly. They usually imply a snack during the daytime.
Most popular is a serving in sweet azuki soup (shiruko).

They are made from special flour, Shiratamako 白玉粉.

glutinous rice flour. It is quite lumpy when dissolved in water and must be kneaded thoroughly for making dumplings.


. WASHOKU
Dumplings of all kinds


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shiratama uri 白玉売 vendor of Shiratama


from the magazine Morisada Mankoo 守貞漫稿

In Edo, these vendors walk along, selling Shiratama and cold water (hiyamizu 「冷水（ひやみず）). The vendor scoops cold water from a well in the morning and starts his business. The dumplings were made of kanzarashiko flour 寒晒粉 (another name for Shiratamako). They were put in a bowl, covered with cold water and some brown sugar then sprinkled on top of them.
One bowl was sold for 4 mon.
Walking along the streets, the vendor would call

ひやつこい ひやつこい hiyakkoi hiyakkoi
Here comes the cold delight !

Some vendors sold only cold water with sugar
satoo mizu uri 砂糖水売り


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夕涼花火賑 : 歌川国周画
http://www.kabuki-za.com/syoku/2/no114.html

On this woodblock from 1870 by Utagawa Kunichika you can see three men enjoying the firework display at the bridge Ryogokubashi. They are three actors, the name of each one is mentioned.
From the left they are Ueo Kikugoro 五代目尾上菊五郎、
Nakamura Shikan 四代目中村芝翫 and Sawamura 二代目澤村訥升.

Kikugoro is dressed in the robes of a vendor of Shiratama.


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Things found on the way


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HAIKU and SENRYU

白玉にとけのこりたる砂糖かな
shiratama ni toke-nokoritaru satoo kana

on the Shiratama
it has not yet dissolved -
this sugar




. 高浜虚子 Takahama Kyoshi



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白玉や愛す人にも嘘ついて
shiratama ya aisu hito nimo uso tsuite

sweet rice dumplings---
even to my love
a little white lie




Suzuki Masajo 鈴木真砂女
1969　

CLICK on the thumbnail
to see the image and text of Nakamura Sakuo.


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Related words

***** . hiyashi shiruko 冷し汁粉（ひやししるこ）sweets with red beans



***** WAGASHI
Sweets Saijiki

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Lodgings (hatago)

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Lodgings, inn (hatago)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Topic
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation




Hatago (旅籠, 旅篭)
were Edo period lodgings for travelers at shukuba (post stations) along the national highways, including the Edo Five Routes and the subroutes. In addition to a place to rest, hatago also offered meals and other foods to the travelers.
They were also called hatagoya (旅籠屋).

Hatago means "traveling basket."
The word itself originally derived from baskets that contained food for horses and were carried by travelers. From there, it became a tool with which travelers were carry their own food and goods. Shops that began preparing and selling food for travelers gained the suffix ya (屋), meaning "shop," but this was eventually shortened to just hatago.

Because many post stations along the Tōkaidō, Nakasendō and other historical routes have been either preserved or rebuilt, there are many traditional hatago still in existence today. While some have only been preserved as public buildings and museums, others have continued to operate for the past few hundred years.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Tokaido, Akasaka by Hiroshige

meshimori hatago 飯盛旅籠（めしもりはたご)
lodgings serving food (and women)

Travellers could ask for food being brought by women who would serve them "anything".

A good traveller would walk about 40 kilometers (10 ri 里), a woman made about 30 kilometers (8 ri).



Tokaido, Goyu 御油(ごゆ) by Toyokuni

Goyu was about 298 km from Edo and 195 km close to Kyoto. Now it is in Toyokawa.

Of course reservations could not be made in the Edo period. Travellers arrived at any time and stopped when they got tired of walking.
A licensed hatago would provide two meals, breakfast and evening meal.

Other lodgings (yadoya, yado 宿屋) more popular with the poor travelelrs would only provide the firewood for self-cooking (kichinyado, kichin yado 木賃宿).
The cost was about 3000 yen (300 mon) for a hatago. A yado would charge about 500 yen (50 mon).

Travellers would often have to share a simple room with others.

When entering a hatago, travellers could wash their feet in a wooden basin (tarai たらい) and sometimes a woman servant would carry their luggage up to a room.

Some hatago would provide local delicacies to entertain the travellers with food and local sake. Some where quite famous for this, for example in Odawara they served kamaboko fish paste.
One meal consisted of a pot of soup, two sidedishes of vegetables and rice 一汁二菜. The price varied with the quality of the food.

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Tokaido, Hiratsuka, by Hiroshige

Hiratsuka is still quite close to Edo, only about 60 kilometers on the road. It was a stop at the crossing of river Banyuugawa 馬入川, now Sagamigawa.
For a slow traveller, Hiratsuka was the second stop-over on the trip.

Here you can see the servants carrying trays with food. The smaller girl carries the pot with cooked rice (meshibitsu 飯櫃).
On the tray there are a bowl of soup, a bowl for rice, a plate with a fish (fried or boiled fish was common), a covered bowl with cooked vegetables (sometimes even lily roots or yuba soy skin, shiitake mushrooms) and a small plate with pickled vegetables.
This is quite a delicious evening meal. Fish was not served in the morning.



. Reference : 旅籠 in 江戸 .


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Things found on the way

Modern Hatago and Food 旅籠料理

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ryokan 旅館 Japanese inn

Many ryokan take great pride in a long history of "motenashi no kokoro" おもてなしのこころ, entertaining the guests with utmost care.

honjin 本陣 feudal lord's lodging in the Edo period
... waki honjin 脇本陣

hoteru ホテル hotel

minshuku みんしゅく【民宿】simple guesthouse, bed and breakfast,
a private home providing meals and lodging (for tourists)

shukubo, shukuboo 宿坊 lodging in a temple



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HAIKU and SENRYU

かすむ日や大旅籠屋のうらの松
kasumu hi ya oohatagoya no ura no matsu

misty day--
behind the big inn
a pine

Kobayashi Issa
(Tr. David Lanoue)



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時の日や昔旅籠の掛時計　
toki no hi ya mukashi hatago no kakedokei

time memorial day -
this wall clock
in the old inn

Sankei 山渓




. toki no kinenbi 時の記念日 (ときのきねんび)
time memorial day, time day


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Related words

. Restaurants 　

. Train Station Lunch Box (ekiben) 　


. Palanquin, sedan chair (kago 篭 or かご) 　



***** WASHOKU : General Information

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