Ohagi are soft parcels of cooked and partly pounded glutinous rice covered with sweet azuki-bean paste, kinako or sesame. They are prepared throughout Japan but have a particularly strong ritual association with Higan, the Buddhist observance surrounding the spring and autumn equinoxes. Families visit graves, clean memorial sites and place ohagi before ancestors at graves or household altars. The autumn name is linked to hagi, the bush clover flowering at this season; similar spring sweets are often called botamochi after the peony. Azuki’s red color was traditionally credited with protective power, while sugar was once sufficiently costly to make the confection an exceptional offering. Higan rites developed in Japan during the Heian period, and the enduring use of ohagi joined Buddhist memorial practice to seasonal flowers, rice agriculture and household confectionery.
Ohagi for the Ancestors during Autumn Higan
AD 794
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