See also Wagashi Resources (Acknowledgements) for a related post. At some point in my tea career, I decided to be the “wagashi guy.” It wasn’t necessarily a conscious choice. Some events that happened over the years: Back at Japan House, we had fresh omogashi every lesson. I joined as many Wagashi Issho workshops as I could in Japan. I volunteered to be part of the sweets committee for our Midorikai Christmas Chakai and helped my senpai churn out a hundred (?

I have been making sweets for every tea class for a couple years now. I’m still learning constantly, and failing frequently, but I’ve gotten to a point where I’m usually comfortable serving what I’ve made to the students. You can see some of my more recent sweets below. My first tea teacher, Kimiko Gunji-sensei, just released a new wagashi cookbook in English called Wagashi: Season by Season which got me thinking about the resources I’ve used to make sweets.