Moyashi making is one of the traditional work in Japan. Though moyashi usually means bean sprouts in Japanese, those which is introduced here expresses another thing.

Fermented food culture, such as sake brewing is the key of Japanese cuisine. Koji mold (Aspergillus oryzae) is very important and necessary for it, that brings out the flavor of the raw ingredients and effects high quality food preservation, makes many basic Japanese diets including shoyu(soy sauce), miso(bean paste) and tsukemono(pickles).

Koji starters are a cultured fungus strain for sake brewing, it is called “moyashi” in the industry. There are 3 companies cultivates Koji starters. In other words, they provide sake for all over Japan.

The sweet stuffs are “tasty treats” in all ages.

It is a sugar that comes to mind first when we talk about sweetener, but it just spread out among the common people about 100 years ago during the Meiji period. There was the sugar in Japan beforehand, but it was only for some upper classes because it was very expensive.

At that time, the sweetener widely used regardless of an area or social position was a “candy".

It is made from starches such as cereals, saccharified by enzyme and boiled it down. It is a "starch syrup" in the present age. The candy now is mainly made from starch of potatoes, saccharified by chemicals and produced in large quantities. It is transparent and does not have an aroma. The candy in the past indicated concentrated maltose in Japan, that has the color of amber (sometimes called “Ameiro”, which means candy color) and refined flavor. It is still essential for making an authentic wagashi, the Japanese sweets.

In fact, this maltose is called “mugi-moyashi(mugi means malt)”, and malt sugar candy from the old days is called “mugi-moyashi candy”.

The sweetener in the Nara period, about 1300 years ago, was called amadura-sen, concentrated winter sap of Japanese ivy. Making it requires much time and effort, it was paid as a tax for those days. After that, a candy made of the maltose became mainstream as is spoken earlier, it is recorded in many documents or books about the manufacturing method and usage.

On the other hand, in the first Chinese-Japanese character dictionary "倭名類聚抄 (wamyo ruijo syo) ," the candy is written as "米蘖為之 (made from rice-moyashi)", but unfortunately, the book which was written down in detail about rice-moyashi was not found, so it is not confirmed. For another view, it is said they made mold grow on rice and let the starch of the plant saccharified, then the rice was gradually replaced for malt which has stronger saccharification enzyme.

An ingredient that calls koji starter as “moyashi”, made from rice starch fermented and saccharified by the power of koji, is “amazake”.

Literally, it means sweet sake, but it is non-alcoholic, naturally sweet flavored beverage.

We call it a drinking intravenous drip because it contains high quality amino acid abundantly produced by the activity of koji. Due to rich in nutrients, preservative is needed to keep the quality.

Therefore, “Sumeragi koji candy”, concentrated amazake candy is born.

It is a product to celebrate 150th anniversary of the first year of the Meiji period for this year 2018.

That is to say, it is a rice-moyashi candy, supervised by the association of Koukyogaien national park, outer garden of the Imperial Palace, and Kyoto gyoen national garden to protect and inherit the traditional Japanese food culture.

It is a good stuff for alimentation during or after running around the Imperial palace as well as a nice and healthy souvenir of Japan.

Take some for yourself and your loved one!