Making traditional higashi sweets & sake tasting

The second sake tasting and Japanese culture event was held at Hiroshima Museum of Art on November 16. Although the weather is starting to cool down, there was a good turnout of people keen to try on kimono, try their hand at some traditional Japanese activities and of, course, sample some of Hiroshima’s famous sake after checking out the museum’s impressive collection of modern European art.

The cultural workshops on offer this evening were higashi Japanese sweet making and shogi, also known as Japanese chess.

Higashi are intricately formed sweets made from either powdered sugar or rice flour. Tonight visitors were working with premium fine-grained sugar called wasanbon, and, to their delight, thanks to the expertly carved wooden kigata moulds, creating your own detailed sweets was actually much easier than you might expect.

The next sake stating at the museum will be held on Friday, December 14 between 3pm and 7pm. This time we are sure the heated sake that will be a popular winter-warmer and the visitors will be able to try their had at origata paper folding and mizuhiki decorative chord craft and make their own decorative envelopes – a great gift of the end of year holidays perhaps.