Sakuramochi

A pink Japanese rice cake filled with sweet red bean paste and wrapped in a salted cherry leaf.

Sakuramochi: Two pale pink sakuramochi made of grainy glutinous rice, each wrapped in a green salted cherry leaf, one cut to show the dark red bean paste inside.
  • Cakes, cookies, pastries and baked goods
  • Japan

Also called: sakura mochi

Sakuramochi is a spring wagashi eaten during cherry blossom season and for the Doll Festival in March. The pale pink wrapper surrounds a ball of sweet red bean paste, and the whole sweet is wrapped in a pickled cherry leaf, whose salty, floral taste balances the sweetness.

There are two main styles. The Kansai style uses coarsely ground, steamed glutinous rice, so the grains are still visible. The Kanto style uses a thin, smooth wheat-flour crepe rolled around the bean paste. The leaf may be eaten or removed.

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Sources

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

  1. Sakuramochi (pink-colored rice cake filled with red bean paste wrapped with a cherry blossom leaf), Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF), Our Regional Cuisines