Making Japanese Sweets (Wagashi)

I had always admired Traditional Japanese sweets served at tea ceremonies. They are a work of art, each piece, elegantly representing the flowers or icons of each season. I would have never imagined that I could make one on my own until I came across a Wagashi Lesson organized by one of my acquaintances. 

In this lesson, I learned how to make a hydrangea flower shaped wagashi made with anko (red bean paste and white bean paste). It was sort of like playing with play dough and quite fun. This type of wagashi is called "kinton" , and is made by pressing a colored white bean paste through a coarse sieve to shred them, then placing the pieces on a ball of anko. 

I plan to attend a few more courses and hopefully be able to teach whoever is interested to learn.