Photos: Kurihara Osamu
Cooperation: my ame

Kumi-ame is a candy made in long cylinders that show the same design wherever they are cut. The discs, cut on a cross-section, display an array of designs such as faces, animals, flowers, and fruit.

Long ago, ame, the Japanese word for candy, referred to mizu-ame (glutinous starch syrup), which was made by using malt to turn the starch of such grains as non-glutinous rice and millet into sugar. This substance was then kneaded to create hard candy. When sugar became more commonly available during the Edo period (1603-1868), Japanese sweet candies came to be made by adding sugar to mizuame, and this became a well-loved confection among the general public.

Kumi-ame first appeared during the Edo period. A mixture of mizuame and sugar is boiled down, then stretched, folded, and kneaded into several long, thin slabs, then colored. These slabs are then assembled to form a cylinder shape with a diameter of approximately 30 cm. When stretched thin and cut, the same design appears on every cross section that is cut. Confectioners have only 30-40 minutes, while the candy is still warm and soft, to assemble and stretch the slabs. This work must be done quickly, with a constant rolling motion to keep a neat cylindrical shape and not distort the design.

Kumi-ame slabs are stretched long and thin (left), then assembled into a cylindrical shape (center), and stretched into a thin strand measuring 2 cm (right). Photos: my ame

These candy designs feature not only images, but text, as well. A kumi-ame confectioner in Aichi Prefecture produces these candies with made-to-order messages. Specifications provided by a designer specializing in kumi-ame give detailed instructions on the color and assembly methods for each order, which can express complex characters requiring some 100 different slabs. Assembly requires great care, since any distortion or misalignment of the slabs will render the letters illegible. Surprisingly, if there are too few letters in a word or strokes in a character, balance becomes a problem, because it is hard to get the letters and spacing right. It takes the experience and intuition of a true craftsperson to envision the finished product and assemble the slabs in an efficient manner.

Candies like these with words can convey personal feelings. They are a casual gift that expresses encouragement and kindness in a tangible way. Though small in size, pop just one candy in your mouth to feel the aroma and sweetness absorb deep into the body.