Kashiwa mochi

A Japanese rice cake filled with sweet red bean paste and wrapped in an oak leaf, traditionally eaten for Children's Day on May 5.

Kashiwa mochi: Three soft white rice cakes folded into half-moon shapes, each wrapped in a large glossy green oak leaf, one cut in half to show smooth white mochi around dark red b
  • Cakes, cookies, pastries and baked goods

Also called: kashiwamochi

Kashiwa mochi is a soft rice cake that is steamed after shaping. The dough, usually a blend of glutinous rice flour and regular rice flour kneaded with warm water, is flattened into an oval, topped with sweetened red bean paste, folded in half and pinched closed. Each piece is then wrapped in a leaf, most often oak, which is peeled away before eating. Some regions use miso-flavored bean paste or other local leaves.

The sweet is tied to Tango no Sekku, the May 5 festival now called Children's Day. Oak trees keep their old leaves until new shoots appear, so the leaf came to stand for a family line that continues, and the cake is eaten as a wish for the prosperity of descendants. In some areas it is also made for festivals marking the end of rice planting.

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Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. Kashiwa-mochi (Mochi Wrapped with Oak Leaf) | Our Regional Cuisines, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF)
  2. Kashiwa Mochi | Our Regional Cuisines, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF)