“The world of wagashi is vast”

said Kazuo Aoyama, the third-generation owner of Kikuzuki, a sweet shop operating in Yanaka for nearly 90 years. Aoyama, 87, has made wagashi, traditional Japanese confectionary sweets, for 70 years. At Kikuzuki, run now by his two sons, every step in making his exquisite wagashi—even soaking, boiling, and mashing azuki beans to make the sweet red bean paste anko—is still done by hand.

World of Japanese Wagashi