Takahiro Yoshihara
Amezaiku is an ancient Japanese tradition dating back to the Heian period, in which tiny edible masterpieces are made in a race against the clock.
Don’t play with your food. It’s a command most people hear growing up, but for makers of amezaiku, such as Takahiro Yoshihara, playing with food is the whole point. A traditional, but not necessarily well-known art form, amezaiku is the art of crafting intricate, miniature edible sculptures that may be most closely associated with lollipops, but are far more than just a sweet on a stick.
“What I love about amezaiku are the performative aspects of it,” explains Yoshihara, the founder and owner of Amezaiku Yoshihara, the first store of its kind in Japan, a fact that’s amazing considering that the earliest recorded history of amezaiku, goes all the way back to 1746. “As a child, I discovered amezaiku going to matsuri [traditional Japanese fairs] and watching the stallholders masterfully craft these sweets.
“I don’t remember exactly what the first shape I saw was, but I remember its fun. I started making amezaiku professionally at the age of 26 and have been doing it for about 18 years now.”
Amezaiku makers have just three minutes to create their little edible masterpieces before the warm and malleable, viscous starch syrup turns hard. This race against the clock is just another part of the show.
The show of it all makes sense when you learn the history of the craft, Yoshihara explains: “Amezaiku makers would travel place to place, setting up at matsuri outside temples and shrines.
“They’d travel wherever people wanted them. You don’t see many old photos or much in terms of history on amezaiku because it was once considered an everyday thing, something fun for kids, not necessarily an art form.”
By opening his Sendagi-situated store, though unintentional, Yoshihara has in a way elevated the practice of amezaiku to an art form. The best comparison would be like visiting a florist, a store that sells a product which – while its lifespan will be fleeting – the joy it offers the recipient is timeless.
The appreciation of fleeting beauty is, as Yoshihara explains, the epitome of the traditional ideology of wabi-sabi. “Although it’s a beautiful ornament, in the end, amezaiku is still just candy, so we want to ensure it tastes nice. From the Edo period up to now, the main point of this art is to create tasty candy. The idea being that while the candy I ate is no longer here, the memories I have of seeing it be made and enjoying it remain in my mind and heart. That connection, I believe, allows the art to stay alive long after it has been eaten.”