Yatsuhashi

Baked yatsuhashi and nama yatsuhashi

Yatsuhashi is a kind of hard-baked senbei. A dough of rice flour with sugar and nikki (cinnamon) added is steamed, rolled thin, cut into strips, and baked on an iron plate. During baking, each strip is pressed against a round rod to give it a curve meant to resemble a koto (Japanese zither), so it ends up bowed like an arch. Because it contains little moisture, it is classed as higashi (dry confectionery).

Nama yatsuhashi is a soft sweet made by cutting the yatsuhashi dough without baking it. It is said to have spread after World War II, and some accounts say it was created in the 1960s. Nama yatsuhashi wrapped around anko (sweet bean paste) and many other flavors have been made, and one shop says it has sold nama yatsuhashi filled with tsubuan (chunky bean paste) since 1947 (Shōwa 22). In residents' opinions on "recommended obanzai and wagashi" collected by Kyoto City in 2013, the top wagashi were minazuki in first place, yatsuhashi in second, and hanabira-mochi in third.

Where the name comes from: Yatsuhashi Kengyō and the Yatsuhashi of Mikawa

There are two theories about the origin of the name Yatsuhashi (literally "eight bridges"), and neither has been settled.

• That a hard-baked senbei finished in the shape of a koto was named "Yatsuhashi" in memory of Yatsuhashi Kengyō (八橋検校), known as the founder of sōkyoku (koto music)
• That its shape resembles the plank bridges of Yatsuhashi in Mikawa Province (now Chiryū City, Aichi Prefecture), which appear in the "Azuma kudari" (journey to the east) episode of The Tales of Ise

Yatsuhashi Kengyō and Kurodani

Yatsuhashi Kengyō (kengyō is a title of rank) was a koto musician said to have been born in 1614 (Keichō 19). He composed works such as "Rokudan no Shirabe," trained many students in Kyoto, and died in 1685 (Jōkyō 2). His grave is at Jōkō-in, within Konkai Kōmyō-ji (known as Kurodani-san) in Sakyō Ward. A story is told that the Kengyō, who always took care to be thrifty, gathered rice that would otherwise have been washed away, ground it into flour, and made hard-baked senbei.

On the anniversary of his death, June 12, the yatsuhashi shops each hold a memorial service for the Kengyō.

Why head shops are in Shōgoin

Two of the long-established yatsuhashi makers have their head shops near Kyoto Kumano Shrine in Shōgoin, Sakyō Ward. This area lies on the approach to Konkai Kōmyō-ji in Kurodani, and the traditions of the shops headquartered in Shōgoin also begin with teahouses here.

One shop says that in 1689 (Genroku 2), four years after the Kengyō died, a teahouse in the Shōgoin woods, on the Kurodani approach where people kept coming to visit his grave, started selling a koto-shaped dry sweet under the name "Yatsuhashi." Another says it began as a teahouse in front of Kumano Shrine in the Shōgoin woods that served white rice-flour mochi to travelers, that a bridge-shaped senbei was born in Genroku 2, and that the recipe was handed down by a monk of a temple in Yatsuhashi Village in Mikawa Province. Yet another shop gives its founding as 1805 (Bunka 2), saying it began with a hard-baked senbei the Kengyō taught at a teahouse in Gion.

Yatsuhashi became known throughout Japan after it began to be sold at Kyoto Station in the Meiji era. Today it is sold not only at the head shops in Shōgoin but also at Kyoto Station, department stores, and shops in tourist areas such as Kiyomizu and Gion.

A lawsuit over founding years

Yatsuhashi makers have gone to court over their founding years and accounts of their origins. In 2018, Izutsu Yatsuhashi Honpo sued Shōgoin Yatsuhashi Sōhonten in the Kyoto District Court, claiming that labels such as "Founded in Genroku 2" on its noren (shop curtains) and packaging were misleading representations of quality under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, and seeking an injunction against the labels and damages.

The Kyoto District Court dismissed the claim on June 10, 2020, and the Osaka High Court dismissed the appeal on March 11, 2021. The rulings held that founding years and origins from more than 300 years ago are a kind of tradition that cannot be confirmed in official records, and that buyers also take them that way, so the labels do not mislead about quality. The rulings did not decide which shop's account of the origins is correct.