Chimaki” eaten on Dragon Boat Festival. What is the origin of the name?(chimaki)
springBoy’s Day celebration (May 5th)
A confectionery made from glutinous or Uruchi rice flour or kuzu (kudzu) flour, wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves in a long, thin conical or triangular shape, and steamed. It is called “chigayamaki” (meaning “rolled in thatched grass”) in ancient times because the rice cake was wrapped with leaves of thatch, a grass of the Poaceae family.
It is customary to eat chimaki on the Dragon Boat Festival on May 5. It is said that this custom began when chimaki was offered to Kuzugen, a politician and poet from Chuxian, China, who died on May 5, on the anniversary of his death.
