Hoba-maki

In short

A leaf instead of oak

In the Kiso area, Tango no sekku is held one month later, on June 5, and hoba-maki are made around that day. Tango no sekku is usually the day of kashiwa-mochi, rice cakes wrapped in oak leaves, but the Kiso area is high up and has no oak trees, so hoba leaves came to be used instead.

Every household had a hoba tree. In early June the young leaves grow and spread wide, which makes them just right for wrapping things. The hoba is a tall deciduous tree of the magnolia family and has the largest leaves and flowers of the trees in the mountains. A big leaf can be 40 cm long and 25 cm wide. Hoba leaves also stop food from going bad, so they have long been used for wrapping.

How it is made

Hot water is added to rice flour and kneaded well. Bean paste, either smooth or chunky, is put inside, and the cake is wrapped in a hoba leaf and steamed. A twig has five or six leaves on it, and they are kept joined, with one cake wrapped in each leaf. The leaves are tied with new rush grass or straw.

Steamed hoba-maki carry the fresh scent of the young leaves. Today there are also versions with yuzu miso paste or white miso and walnut paste, which families and shops try in their own way.

When it is eaten

It is made to celebrate Tango no sekku, as a seasonal festival food, and it has also been a tea snack for farmers at rice-planting time. Shops all over town sell hoba-maki, and they are a sight of early summer that belongs to the Kiso area.

An old story

The story is that hoba-maki began at the end of the Heian period, in the time of Kiso Yoshinaka of the Shinano Genji family. When he went to war, he is said to have wrapped miso and rice in hoba leaves.

How to eat it, and today

You take each one off the branch, remove the leaf, and eat it with your hands. Local people say it is best “the next day,” when the rice cake has firmed up a little and taken on more of the hoba scent. It keeps for two to three days at room temperature, and can be frozen. A frozen one can be steamed again, left to thaw, or have its leaf removed and be grilled.

Every early summer, families in Kiso still make hoba-maki. In the season, a “Hoba Festival” is held, and shops in the district sell hoba-maki and hoba-sushi.

Think about it

• Q1Why might people wrap food in leaves instead of paper or plastic?
• Q2No oak trees grow high in Kiso, so people used another leaf. What other local things replace the “standard” one in your area?
• Q3Which would you pick for a rice cake: the scent of oak leaves or of hoba leaves? Why?

There is no single right answer. Talking it over with someone at home is a good way to learn.