kuri kinton
two different sweets with the same name
栗きんとん（くりきんとん）
In one line
The shortest answer that works
Two unrelated chestnut sweets share this name: the golden New Year dish, and a plain chestnut confection from Gifu.
同じ名前で二つの別の菓子があります。正月の金色のものと、岐阜の素朴な和菓子です。
In 30 seconds
The standard explanation
The kuri kinton in a New Year box is a thick, bright yellow paste of mashed sweet potato, sweetened heavily, with candied chestnuts in it; the color stands for gold and it is eaten as a wish for money. The kuri kinton of Nakatsugawa in Gifu is a completely different thing: chestnut and sugar only, steamed, mashed and twisted into a small shape in a cloth, sold in autumn.
おせちに入る栗きんとんは、さつまいもを裏ごしして強く甘くした鮮やかな黄色の餡に、甘く煮た栗を入れたものです。色が金を表し、金運を願って食べます。岐阜の中津川の栗きんとんは、まったく別のものです。栗と砂糖だけを蒸して潰し、茶巾で小さく絞った菓子で、秋に売られます。
As a short speech
A full paragraph you can read aloud
Kuri kinton is a useful example of how the same name can cover two quite different things in Japan. The one most people meet first is in the New Year box. It is a dense, glossy, bright yellow paste made from mashed sweet potato with a lot of sugar, sometimes colored further with gardenia pods, studded with chestnuts that have been candied in syrup.
It is very sweet, and the reason it is there is the color: kinton is written with characters meaning golden mash, so it stands for wealth and is eaten as a wish for a prosperous year. The other kuri kinton comes from Nakatsugawa in Gifu, in the chestnut country of the mountains, and is made of nothing but chestnuts and sugar.
The nuts are steamed, scraped out, mixed with sugar, and squeezed in a cloth into a small pointed shape that keeps the marks of the fabric. It is sold from early September, it does not keep long, and people in that region will tell you firmly that this is the real one. Both are correct; they simply have nothing to do with each other.
栗きんとんは、同じ名前がまったく違うものを指すことがある、という良い例です。多くの人が先に出会うのは、おせちのほうでしょう。さつまいもを裏ごしして砂糖をたっぷり加えた、密で艶のある鮮やかな黄色の餡に、蜜で煮た栗を混ぜたもので、くちなしの実でさらに色をつけることもあります。
とても甘い。そこに入っている理由は色です。きんとんは「金団」と書き、金の塊を表すので、豊かな一年を願って食べます。もう一つの栗きんとんは、岐阜の中津川のもの。山あいの栗の産地で、材料は栗と砂糖だけです。
蒸した栗の実をかき出し、砂糖を混ぜ、茶巾で小さくきゅっと絞る。布の跡が残った、先のとがった形になります。九月の初めから売られ、日もちはしません。その地方の人は、こちらが本物だときっぱり言います。どちらも正しい。ただ、互いに何の関係もないというだけです。
Questions people actually ask
And how to answer them.
QWhich one is older?
The Gifu sweet is generally described as the older form. The New Year version as we know it, with sweet potato, became common after sugar and sweet potato were widely available.
岐阜の菓子のほうが古い形とされます。さつまいもを使う正月のものは、砂糖とさつまいもが広く手に入るようになって定着したものです。
QWhy is the New Year one so yellow?
Partly the sweet potato variety, partly gardenia pods boiled with it as a natural colorant. The gold color is the whole point of the dish.
さつまいもの品種によるところと、くちなしの実を一緒に煮て色を出すことによります。金色であること自体が、この料理の目的です。
QWhere can I buy the Gifu one?
In Nakatsugawa and Ena from September to around December, and at department store food halls in the season. It is not sold year-round.
九月から十二月ごろまで中津川や恵那で、季節には百貨店の食品売り場でも買えます。一年中あるものではありません。
A common misunderstanding
MYTHKuri kinton is one sweet made from chestnuts.
FACTTwo different things share the name. The New Year version is mostly sweet potato; the Gifu confection is chestnut and sugar only.
Phrases you can use
- There are two different sweets with this name.この名前の菓子は二つあります。
- The New Year one is mostly sweet potato.正月のものは主にさつまいもです。
- The gold color stands for money.金色は、金運を表します。
- The Gifu one is just chestnut and sugar.岐阜のものは栗と砂糖だけです。
- It's shaped by twisting it in a cloth.布で絞って形を作ります。
Words you need
- chestnut栗
- sweet potatoさつまいも
- to strain, to sieve裏ごし
- cloth-twisted shape茶巾絞り
- New Year boxおせち
Watch
From YouTubeBackground (Japanese)
「金団」は金の団子、金の塊を意味し、おせちでは金運を願う一品とされる。黄色はさつまいもに加え、くちなしの実を一緒に煮て出すことが多い。岐阜県中津川市・恵那市の栗きんとんは、栗と砂糖だけを用い、茶巾で絞って成形する和菓子で、9月初旬から店頭に並ぶ。両者は名前が同じだが、材料も作り方も異なる。