Hanabiramochi

Hanabiramochi (花びら餅) is a New Year wagashi: thin, soft white mochi folded around a strip of pickled gobo (burdock root) and a layer of miso-flavored bean paste, the pink filling peeking through to suggest a flower petal. It traces back to hishihanabira-mochi, served at Heian-era imperial New Year banquets as part of hagatame, a “tooth-hardening” ritual in which eating firm foods was believed to bring longevity; the gobo itself stands in for ayu (sweetfish), another longevity symbol from the original court dish. Originally unsweetened and reserved for the aristocracy, it was sweetened, renamed, and made available to the public only after the 1868 Meiji Restoration, and it remains the standard sweet for Hatsugama, the year’s first tea ceremony, in the Urasenke school.