is a Japanese shaved ice

dessert Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and most parts o ...

flavored with

syrup In cooking, a syrup (less commonly sirup; from ar, شراب; , beverage, wine and la, sirupus) is a condiment that is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars ...

and a sweetener, often

condensed milk Condensed milk is cow's milk from which water has been removed (roughly 60% of it). It is most often found with sugar added, in the form of ''sweetened condensed milk'' (SCM), to the extent that the terms "condensed milk" and "sweetened condense ...

.新明解国語辞典（第6版）、三省堂

History

The origins of ''kakigōri'' date back to the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japan ...

in Japanese history, when blocks of ice saved during the colder months would be shaved and served with sweet syrup to Japanese aristocracy during the summer. Kakigōri's origin is referred to in ''

The Pillow Book is a book of observations and musings recorded by Sei Shōnagon during her time as court lady to Empress Consort Teishi during the 990s and early 1000s in Heian-period Japan. The book was completed in the year 1002. The work is a collection o ...

'', a book of observations written by

Sei Shōnagon was a Japanese author, poet, and a court lady who served the Empress Teishi (Sadako) around the year 1000 during the middle Heian period. She is the author of . Name Sei Shōnagon's actual given name is not known. It was the custom among arist ...

, who served the Imperial Court during the Heian period. Kakigōri became more accessible in the 19th century, when ice became more widely available to the public during the summertime. The first kakigōri store is believed to have opened in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

in 1869. July 25 is known as kakigōri day in Japan because of its pronunciation sounding similar to summer ice in Japanese. Another reasoning for July 25 being kakigōri day is because, on that day in 1933, there was a record high temperature in Japan.

Description

The traditional way of making kakigōri uses a hand cranked

machine A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecul ...

to spin a block of ice over a shaving blade. Even though electric shavers are most often used, street vendors can still be seen hand-shaving ice blocks in the summer. Rather than flavored ice, Kakigōri is traditionally made of pure ice, in many cases, being a frozen block of mineral water. The ice used is often taken from natural springs, afterward being tempered to achieve an ideal quality for shaving. Prior to refrigeration, mountain caves or ice houses would be the traditional way of storing kakigōri ice. It is similar to a

snow cone Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

but with some notable differences: It has a much smoother fluffier ice consistency, much like fresh fallen snow, and a spoon is almost always used to eat it. The texture of the ice distinguishes kakigōri from other types of shaved ice desserts. Due to this textural difference, it has also been seen translated as 'Angel Snow', which perhaps sounds more appealing. Popular flavors include

strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour '' Prunus cerasus''. The n ...

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

green tea Green tea is a type of tea that is made from '' Camellia sinensis'' leaves and buds that have not undergone the same withering and oxidation process which is used to make oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China, and since th ...

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...

melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit. Botanically, a melon is a kind of berry, specifically a "pepo". T ...

, "

Blue Hawaii ''Blue Hawaii'' is a 1961 American musical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Norman Taurog and starring Elvis Presley. The screenplay by Hal Kanter was nominated by the Writers Guild of America in 1962 in the category of Best Written Americ ...

", sweet plum, and colorless syrup. Some shops provide colorful varieties by using two or more syrups. To sweeten kakigōri, condensed or evaporated milk is often poured on top of it. Kōri-hata 001

In addition to street stalls, kakigōri is sold in

festivals A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ti ...

s, coffee shops, specialized kakigōri parlors, and restaurants. It's also frequently prepared by families at home. During the hot summer months, kakigōri is sold virtually everywhere in Japan. Especially at summer festivals and fairs such as

matsuri Japanese festivals are traditional festive occasions often celebrated with dance and music in Japan. Many festivals have their roots in traditional Chinese festivals, but have undergone extensive changes over time to have little resemblance ...

and

bon odori or just is fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist–Confucian custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people retu ...

festivals, often served alongside other street foods such as yakisoba,

takoyaki is a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special molded pan. It is typically filled with minced or diced octopus (''tako''), tempura scraps (''tenkasu''), pickled ginger (''beni shoga''), and green o ...

and cotton candy. Kakigōri is one of the summer features in Japan. Some shops serve it with

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

and sweetened red beans or tapioca pearls. A flag with the kanji sign for ice kōri (氷) is a common and traditional way for an establishment to indicate that they are serving kakigōri.

Shirokuma

, is a type of kakigōri. Shirokuma is made with shaved ice flavored with

, small colorful

mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of , a short-grain japonica glutinous rice, and sometimes other ingredients such as water, sugar, and cornstarch. The rice is pounded into paste and molded into the desired shape. In Japan, it is traditionally ma ...

, fruits, and sweet bean paste (usually

Azuki bean ''Vigna angularis'', also known as the adzuki bean , azuki bean, aduki bean, red bean, or red mung bean, is an annual vine widely cultivated throughout East Asia for its small (approximately long) bean. The cultivars most familiar in East Asia ...

). Mandarin oranges, cherries, pineapples, and raisins are often used to make shirokuma.

Description

Shirokuma has been popular in

Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...

since the middle of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

and is well known to many Japanese.

Condensed milk Condensed milk is cow's milk from which water has been removed (roughly 60% of it). It is most often found with sugar added, in the form of ''sweetened condensed milk'' (SCM), to the extent that the terms "condensed milk" and "sweetened condense ...

, fruit, and sweet bean paste are served over shaved ice. It is eaten in cafés and in some department stores, such as Yamakataya (山形屋) or Mujaki.

Etymology

Shirokuma literally means "white bear" and indicates "

polar bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear spec ...

" in Japanese. There are some views about the origin of the name. In one account, there was a cotton shop in Kagoshima city. The shop started to sell kakigōri as its side-business. The kakigōri was flavored with condensed milk. When the owner was thinking of a name for it, he noticed the picture of a polar bear was printed on the labels of the condensed milk's can. Another account is that Mujaki, a coffee shop in Kagoshima City, started to sell the kakigōri, put milk syrup, ''sanshoku-kanten'' (colorful

agar Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from ogonori (''Gracilaria'') and "tengusa" (''Gelidiaceae''). As found in nature, agar i ...

yōkan is a wagashi (Japanese confection) made of red bean paste, agar, and sugar. It is usually sold in a block form, and eaten in slices. There are two main types: ''neri yōkan'' and ''mizu yōkan''. "Mizu" means "water", and indicates that it i ...

(soft azuki-bean jelly), sweet beans and fruits in a pattern that resembled a polar bear when seen from overhead, so it was named shirokuma. Yet others say that it was created in honour of the memory of Saigo Takamori after his battle with the Edo Shogun. In Kagoshima, some similar named kakigōri are made. Kurokuma flavored with dark brown unrefined sugar syrup, coffee or caramel syrup and kiguma flavored with mango pulp syrup are made in some coffee shops.

Availability

Supermarkets in southern

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

, especially in Kagoshima City, Kagoshima, and mom-and-pop candy stores sell shirokuma as a popular product. Shirokuma are often eaten at Kagoshima fairs which are held in other prefectures. Shirokuma in cups are sold at

convenience stores A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticke ...

all over Japan. One of the brands found in stores, Marunaga Seika, received the Long Seller Award for their continuing work in enriching the Shirokuma distribution. The brand launched their Shirokuma product in 1972.

Ujikintoki

Ujikintoki (宇治金時 or うじきんとき) is a type of Kakigōri that is made from shaved ice, flavored green tea syrup, sweet bean paste (Azuki bean), mochi, and green tea ice cream (抹茶アイスクリーム, Matcha aisu kurīmu).

Etymology

Ujikintoki is named after the small city of Uji, in Kyoto Prefecture, famous for its green tea and Sakata Kintoki, who is known as

Kintarō is a folk hero from Japanese folklore. A child of superhuman strength, he was raised by a yama-uba ("mountain witch") on Mount Ashigara. He became friendly with the animals of the mountain, and later, after catching Shuten-dōji, the terror of ...

in Japanese folklore. Kintoki is the red bean paste that is named after Kintarō's face usually being depicted as red.

Other varieties

Yakigori

Yakigori (焼き氷) is a type of Kakigōri where liquor, often brandy is poured on top and then lit on fire. Yakigori occasionally has caramel sauce, ice cream, strawberries, or pineapple on top.

History

Description

Shirokuma

Description

Etymology

Availability

Ujikintoki

Etymology

Other varieties

Yakigori

See also

Similar dishes in other cultures

References

External links