wasanbon is the most famous sugar used in traditional Japanese confectionery. See sugar. Faintly yellow in color, it has fine crystals and a subtle bouquet. The derivation of the word is uncertain. The referent wa indicates domestic Japanese manufacture; sanbon could be the Japanese version of the name of the Chinese person who disseminated the sugar-making process to Japan, or it could refer to “three bowls” (sanbon) used in the production process.
While sugar was known as an expensive medicine in the 700s, Japanese cooking did not make much use of sweeteners until the Portuguese and Chinese reintroduced sugar in the late 1500s, and Japanese consumers quickly developed a taste for the product. See japan. In an effort to improve Japan’s balance of trade, Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684–1751) sought to stem purchases of imported sugar by encouraging the domestic production of sugarcane. Although Yoshimune directed that sugar be planted throughout Japan, today sugarcane for wasanbon is grown only in Kagawa and Tokushima prefectures in Shikoku, where the artisanal techniques used to make wasanbon developed in the late 1700s. Farmers plant a thin variety of Chinese sugarcane called Saccharum sinense. The cane is harvested in December and crushed to extract the juice, which is then boiled to evaporate the water. The cooled liquid is pressed in a cloth bag and kneaded by hand in four changes of water to remove the molasses before the sugar is dried. Wasanbon is mainly used to make dry confectionery (higashi), for which it is mixed with refined rice flour and formed into molded shapes. See wagashi.
