Gyūhi and Hyōrokumochi

Gyūhi (求肥) is a form of wagashi (traditional Japanese sweet). Gyūhi is a softer variety of mochi (餅), and both are made from either glutinous rice or from mochiko (餅粉), which is glutinous rice flour. Because gyūhi is more delicate, it is usually less frequently made and served than mochi. It is sometimes featured in sweets that originated in the Kyoto area.

Hyōrokumochi (兵六餅^?) is a candy which is made and sold by Seika Foods in Kagoshima. This is made of gyūhi. Gyūhi is a kind of rice cake (mochi).

That candy is made of maltose starch syrup, nori, powdered green tea, soybean flour, and whitebean paste. It is shaped into small cube, and wrapped in oblate which is thin film of edible starch.

Hyōrokumochi can be bought at stores throughout Kyushu. It is currently imported to North America from Japan by JFC International.

In 1931, Kagoshima Seika, the predecessor of Seika Foods, started to sell these candy. Hyōrokumochi was named after Ōishi Hyōroku Yumemonogatari, a Kagoshima book written by Japanese writer Mōri Masanao. On the box, there is the picture of a young soldier from Kagoshima wearing a fundoshi, the traditional Japanese undergarment for adult males, made from a length of cotton. At first the company was unable to obtain permission for the packet because the man’s bottom is bare. However Seika Foods insisted that the fundoshi hides everything that needs to be hidden, and so permission was granted.

Kagoshima (鹿児島市 Kagoshima-shi^?) is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu in Japan .