Tōgashi - The Simple Sweets Japan's Envoys Brought Home From Tang China a Thousand Years Ago

The tea-and-fruit confections in the Chinese drama A Dream of Splendor are, historically speaking, a bit of a time-travel fantasy. Those recipes weren’t some “lost techniques” rediscovered from ancient China. They were developed in Japan much later, as tea culture flourished and Portuguese traders — known in Japan as nanban, or “southern barbarians” — introduced sugar-refining techniques and new varieties of beans.

In other words, those sweets belong to the Ming dynasty and later — centuries after the story we’re telling here.

So did tōgashi really exist?

Absolutely. It just had very little in common with the wagashi we know today.

Then why is there no mention of tōgashi in Chinese records?

Because the term itself existed only in Japan.

To see if this was really the case, I made a trip to the Heian-kyō Sōseikan in Kyoto, where a scale model recreates the capital during the Heian period. Sure enough, among the exhibits, I found something labeled tōgashi.

Ingredients

Rice

Natural sweetness from fruit

A touch of spice for seasoning

How to Make It

1. Shape the dough, then deep-fry it.