Kibi dango (Okayama) facts for kids

A Kibi dango (吉備団子, きびだんご) is a special Japanese sweet or snack. It gets its name from an old area called Kibi Province, which is now mostly Okayama Prefecture. Kibi dango is made from a soft dough called gyūhi, which is a type of mochi. It's shaped into flat, round cakes.

The main ingredients are Glutinous rice, starch, syrup, and sugar. Many shops in Okayama City make these sweets. Long ago, Kibi dango might have been made with millet, but today's recipe uses little or no millet.

Kibi dango is famous because of the Japanese folk tale of Momotarō, also known as "Peach Boy." In the story, Momotarō shares these dumplings with his animal friends to gain their help in fighting ogres. Even though the modern Kibi dango is different from the one in the old tale, it's still strongly linked to Momotarō.

People often think Kibi dango was invented around 1856 by a sweet shop called Kōeidō. However, local historians have found a more detailed history. Some ideas even suggest its origins are connected to a dumpling served at the Kibitsu Shrine in Okayama. The main god of this shrine, Kibitsuhiko-no-mikoto, is a legendary ogre-slayer. Many people in Okayama believe he is the real-life inspiration for Momotarō. Since the 1930s, there has been a big effort in the region to promote Momotarō as a local hero from Kibi Province, and his dumplings as Kibi dango.

How Kibi Dango Was Invented

There are different stories about when and how Kibi dango was first made. The most common story is that a sweet shop called Kōeidō (廣榮堂) created this special dessert in the early Ansei era (around 1854). This company later split into two brands, Kōeidō Honten (廣榮堂本店) and Kōeidō Takeda (広栄堂武田), which still exist today. Takeda is the family name of the original business.

The Family's Story

The Kōeidō Honten company says their family used to run a ceramics business called "Hirose-ya (廣瀬屋)" for seven generations. Then, in 1856, they changed to making sweets and renamed their shop "Kōeidō." According to them, around 1856, Takeda Hanzō, who used to run the ceramics shop, worked with two other men from Okayama. Together, they created a new recipe. This new recipe was an improvement over an older steamed millet dumpling. The old dumpling was rectangular, like a kakimochi (a type of rice cracker), and didn't stay fresh for long. It was usually eaten with red bean paste or sauce.

What Historians Found Out

Local historians have looked into the past more closely. They found that several years passed between 1856 and when Takeda Asajirō took over the business and changed the recipe.

A historian named Oka Chōhei put together a detailed timeline. He used old articles and interviews. Here's what he found:

In 1855, three ordinary people from the town near Okayama Castle (now Okayama City) worked together. They made a reddish, rectangular sweet, similar to a kakimochi. It was meant to be eaten with tea. One of these men was old man Hanryo (伴呂翁). He was the grandfather of Takeda Hanzō (武田伴蔵), whose family later started Kōeidō. This snack was just for fun, not for selling. But they decided to name it after the Kibi Province, calling it Kibi-dan-go (吉備だん粉).

Even though this sweet was first only shared among friends and family, it eventually became popular and was sold. Takeda Hanzō then opened a shop called Sōkandō (相歓堂). His mistress sold the Kibi-dan-go there. Historians believe this early Kibi-dan-go was probably more like a rice cracker than the soft dumpling we know today. After Hanzō's mistress passed away, the Sōkandō business was given to Hanzō's relative, Takeda Asajirō. He was the person who founded Kōeidō.

It wasn't until Takeda Asajirō took over that the sweet became the soft gyūhi product we see today, sold in boxes. This change happened after the Meiji Restoration (around 1867). Asajirō's own writings say that his product changed from rectangular items to round cakes, about the size of two go game pieces, sold in boxes of 30 or 50.

In 1885, Kōeidō's Kibi dango was given to Emperor Meiji when he visited the area. The Emperor was so impressed that he wrote a waka poem praising it. The poem said that there was no other Kibi dango like it in Japan, and that its taste truly earned its name. After this, the sellers started putting leaflets with this poem inside their Kibi dango boxes.

Old Stories and Kibitsu Shrine

There are several stories that try to connect Kibi dango's past to food, customs, or legends from Okayama's Kibitsu Shrine.

One old story says that the Kibi dango recipe was created based on a suggestion from a former advisor, Igi San'ensai. He supposedly got the idea from the millet dumplings served at Kibitsu Shrine.

The founder of Kōeidō wrote a travel guide in 1895. In it, he claimed that Kibitsuhiko himself rolled some Kibi dango to give to Emperor Jimmu. This story isn't historically accurate, but it shows that the company was trying to link their product to this important god early on.

From modern studies, one idea suggests that Japanese shrines have a custom called naorai (御直会). This is when food offered to the gods is eaten afterward. Kibitsu Shrine followed this custom in the early Edo Period. An Okayama University professor, Taniguchi Sumio [ja], believes this custom was the origin of Kibi dango.

Another professor from Okayama University, Fujii Shun (藤井駿), thought the sweet was a changed version of Miyauchi ame (宮内飴). This was a special sweet from the villages near Kibitsu Shrine.

Kibi Dango During Wars

Kōeidō's Kibi dango became famous across Japan after the private San'yō Railway started running through Okayama City. This new train line connected Kobe to Okayama in 1891. It then extended to Hiroshima just before the First Sino-Japanese War began in 1894.

During the war, the main military headquarters was in Hiroshima. All the soldiers gathered there and traveled through Ujina Harbor. Soldiers from eastern Japan had to ride the San'yō line and passed through Okayama station. Kōeidō, which already sold its sweets at Okayama Station, expanded its business to Hiroshima Station. They made a lot of money selling Kibi dango to soldiers and their families as souvenirs.

This was when Kōeidō started its marketing plan to connect Kibi dango to "Peach Boy" (Momotarō). The owner, Takeda Asajirō, reportedly dressed up as Momotarō himself. He held a banner that said "Nippon-ichi" (number one in Japan) to help sell the sweets. People dressed as oni (ogres) also handed out leaflets. Selling at the station was so successful that other people were hired to help. By April 1897, there were 12 businesses claiming to be the "original" Kibi dango sellers.

Kibi Dango Today

As mentioned, during the Meiji Era, Kibi dango businesses already used the "number one" slogan from the Peach Boy story. They even used Momotarō costumes to help sell their products. But eventually, the entire Okayama prefecture began to promote Kibi dango and Momotarō as a key part of their local culture.

This really took off after World War II. Before this, other places like Inuyama and Takamatsu also claimed to be Momotarō's home. However, that changed with the work of Nanba Kinnosuke, who wrote "The True History of Momotarō" in 1930. He claimed that the Momotarō folk tale was based on a real legend. This legend was about Kibitsuhiko defeating a local ogre named Ura. Kibitsuhiko, as his name suggests, is the god honored at Kibitsu Shrine in Okayama.

Today, the Momotarō theme is used in train station advertisements and on the packaging of Kibi dango products. Since 1993, Kōeidō Honten has sold "Ganso Kibidango," which features Momotarō designs by children's book illustrator Tarō Gomi.

Many different kinds of Kibi dango have been created. Some have Muscat grape syrup filling, while others have white peach syrup. There are also kinako Kibi dango, which are sprinkled with kinako (dry soybean powder), and even chocolate-flavored ones.