Wagashi and Tea Ceremony: Japanese Sweets, Matcha & Zen

Sep 21, 2024

10 min read

Updated: Aug 17

Wagashi and the Japanese tea ceremony are deeply connected. Traditional Japanese sweets are not simply served alongside matcha as a snack. Their sweetness, seasonal designs, colors, textures, and even names are chosen to complement the tea and the atmosphere of the tea gathering.

Understanding this relationship reveals something larger about Japanese culture: an appreciation for seasonality, restraint, craftsmanship, hospitality, and the beauty of things that exist only for a moment.

In Kagurazaka, Tokyo, travelers can experience this connection firsthand by making seasonal wagashi under the guidance of Tokyo Meister Takeshi Inoue, then enjoying their own creations with freshly whisked matcha in an authentic Japanese tea room.

What Is the Connection Between Wagashi and the Japanese Tea Ceremony?

Wagashi are traditional Japanese sweets. The word “wagashi” combines wa, meaning Japan or Japanese, and kashi (which becomes gashi in the compound), meaning sweets or confectionery. Wagashi come in many different forms, from simple everyday treats such as daifuku and monaka to highly refined seasonal confections served at formal tea gatherings.

In the Japanese tea ceremony, however, wagashi have a special role.

They prepare the palate for matcha, express the season, and contribute visually and symbolically to the theme of the gathering. A carefully chosen sweet may suggest cherry blossoms in spring, flowing water in summer, autumn leaves, or snow in winter.

This means that wagashi are not separate from the tea experience. They form part of the overall composition of the tea gathering, together with the tea bowl, flowers, calligraphy, utensils, architecture, and hospitality of the host.

The relationship is therefore both sensory and cultural.

The guest first sees the wagashi, notices its shape and color, tastes its sweetness and texture, and then experiences how those sensations change the taste of the matcha that follows.

Why Is Wagashi Served Before Matcha?

In a traditional tea setting, wagashi is generally eaten before drinking matcha. Try to finish the wagashi before taking your first sip of matcha, rather than alternating between bites of the sweet and sips of tea.

The reason is easy to appreciate once you experience the combination yourself.

Wagashi has a pronounced but delicate sweetness. Matcha, by contrast, can have bitterness, astringency, vegetal notes, and umami. Eating the sweet first creates a pleasing contrast when the tea follows.

The sweetness of the wagashi softens the impression of bitterness while allowing the character of the matcha to stand out more clearly.

This sequence is also part of the rhythm of the tea gathering. Rather than consuming tea and sweets casually at the same time, the guest experiences each element in turn.

The result is a slower and more attentive way of eating and drinking.

Depending on the school and form of the gathering, procedures can differ, so visitors do not need to memorize complicated rules beforehand. When joining an experience in Japan, the host or guide can explain the appropriate etiquette.

The Deep Connection Between Wagashi, Tea Ceremony, and Zen

The relationship between tea and Zen developed over many centuries.

Tea drinking became closely associated with Zen temples and Buddhist practice in medieval Japan. Over time, tea gatherings evolved beyond simply drinking tea and became a highly developed cultural practice involving architecture, ceramics, calligraphy, gardens, flowers, food, and hospitality.

For travelers interested in experiencing Zen itself, our guide to Zen meditation in Tokyo explains where and how to join a private, English-guided zazen experience.

The tea ceremony as we know it today was shaped particularly during the Muromachi and Azuchi-Momoyama periods, when tea masters increasingly emphasized simplicity, restraint, attentiveness, and the relationship between host and guest.

Wagashi developed alongside this tea culture.

As sugar became more widely available and confectionery techniques advanced, Japanese artisans created increasingly sophisticated sweets suited to tea gatherings. By the Edo period, wagashi culture had flourished, and confectioners were producing seasonal designs with remarkable subtlety.

This historical relationship explains why wagashi can be difficult to understand if viewed simply as "Japanese dessert."

The sweet is part of a larger cultural language.

A flower shape, color combination, poetic name, or seasonal motif can have meaning far beyond appearance alone. In the context of tea, those small details contribute to the atmosphere the host wishes to create for the guest.

Wabi-Sabi in Wagashi and the Tea Ceremony

Wabi-sabi is often translated too simply as an appreciation of imperfection.

In the context of Japanese aesthetics, it is better understood as an appreciation for simplicity, impermanence, restraint, natural change, and beauty that does not need to be ostentatious.

These ideas can be felt throughout the tea ceremony.

A tea bowl may not be perfectly symmetrical. A tea room may be deliberately modest. Natural materials are allowed to show their texture and age. Seasonal flowers are arranged without excessive decoration.

Wagashi expresses similar ideas.

A seasonal sweet does not attempt to reproduce a flower or landscape with photographic realism. Instead, the artisan may suggest a cherry blossom with only a few curves and colors, or evoke flowing water through a translucent surface.

The design leaves something to the imagination.

This restraint is part of what makes wagashi so distinctly Japanese. The guest is invited not merely to identify what the sweet represents, but to notice the season, recall a landscape, or imagine the atmosphere suggested by the confection.

How Wagashi Reflects Japan’s Four Seasons

Seasonality is one of the defining characteristics of wagashi.

Japan traditionally divides the year not only into four seasons, but into far more subtle stages of seasonal change. Traditional calendars even recognize 72 microseasons, each describing a small transformation in nature.

Wagashi artisans draw inspiration from these changes.

Spring sweets may evoke cherry blossoms, young leaves, or wisteria. Summer designs may suggest flowing streams, fireflies, morning glory, or cooling water. Autumn brings motifs such as chrysanthemums, moon viewing, chestnuts, and colored leaves. Winter may be expressed through snow, camellias, plum blossoms, or the quiet landscape before spring.

This seasonal awareness is especially important in tea culture.

The host considers the season when selecting flowers, utensils, calligraphy, and sweets. The wagashi therefore becomes one part of a carefully coordinated experience.

For travelers, this means that taking the same wagashi-making class at different times of the year can produce a completely different design and story.

Japan's seasonal culture extends far beyond food. If you would like to understand how finely Japanese tradition observes changes in nature, our guide to the 72 microseasons of Japan offers a deeper introduction.

What Is Nerikiri? Why It Is Closely Connected to the Tea Ceremony

Nerikiri is a refined type of wagashi made by kneading white bean paste (shiro-an) together with gyuhi, a soft, chewy confection made from glutinous rice flour. It is one of the most artistic forms of wagashi and is particularly associated with formal tea culture.

Its soft, pliable texture allows skilled artisans to shape delicate seasonal motifs, such as flowers, leaves, water, and snow. Rather than focusing only on its ingredients, the most interesting aspect of nerikiri is what it allows an artisan to express.

Nerikiri is therefore especially suited to tea gatherings because it can reflect the season and theme chosen by the host.

The sweet may be small, but it can contain several layers of cultural meaning.

Its appearance prepares the guest emotionally for the tea that follows, while its sweetness provides contrast with matcha.

This is why making nerikiri yourself can reveal much more about Japanese aesthetics than simply eating one in a café. Shaping the sweet requires you to think about proportion, color, restraint, and seasonality in the same way a professional artisan does.

Meet Takeshi Inoue: Tokyo Meister and One of Japan's Excellent Wagashi Artisans

One of the most distinctive features of EDO KAGURA’s wagashi-making experience is the opportunity to learn directly from Takeshi Inoue of Baika-tei.

Inoue holds the titles of Tokyo Meister and Excellent Wagashi Artisan. According to the latest published list from the Japan Wagashi Association, a total of 160 artisans in Japan have been certified as Excellent Wagashi Artisans, and Inoue is among those recognized professionals.

In this experience, participants learn directly from Inoue himself. Baika-tei was founded in Kagurazaka in 1935 and has become particularly known for its carefully made wagashi and anko, or sweet bean paste.

Baika-tei creates at least 16 varieties of jo-namagashi every month, changing the designs roughly every two weeks. Including special orders for tea gatherings and other occasions, the shop produces around 200 different jo-namagashi designs each year. This is a remarkable example of how Japanese confectioners express the changing seasons through wagashi.

If you have time, it is well worth visiting Baika-tei itself. Some of the seasonal designs are surprisingly playful and imaginative, offering a charming glimpse into how an artisan interprets nature and the time of year through a small sweet.

Learning directly from an experienced artisan changes the nature of the workshop.

You are not simply following instructions for making something visually attractive. You can observe how a professional handles the material, creates delicate shapes, chooses proportions, and translates the season into a small confection.

The experience also gives travelers an opportunity to ask questions about the craft, ingredients, seasonal designs, and the traditions surrounding wagashi.

For visitors who want to understand Japanese culture through the people who preserve it, meeting an artisan is often as meaningful as the finished object itself.

Fufumi-an: A Sukiya-Zukuri Tea Room in Kagurazaka

The setting is another important part of the experience.

The wagashi-making class takes place at Fufumi-an, a traditional-style space hidden in the backstreets of Yokotera-machi in Kagurazaka.

Completed in 2024, Fufumi-an incorporates elements of Sukiya-zukuri, an architectural style closely associated with tea culture.

Natural materials and traditional craftsmanship create a quiet atmosphere that contrasts sharply with the dense modern city surrounding it.

This matters because tea culture has always been concerned with space as well as taste.

A tea room is designed to encourage guests to leave ordinary distractions behind and pay attention to the objects, sounds, movements, and people immediately around them.

Experiencing wagashi and matcha in such a setting makes it easier to understand why Japanese tea culture cannot be reduced simply to "drinking green tea."

Kagurazaka itself adds another layer to the experience. Its narrow lanes, traditional restaurants, temples, artisan shops, and long association with Japanese performing and hospitality culture make it an unusually appropriate part of Tokyo in which to encounter wagashi and tea.

Yokotera-machi, where Fufumi-an is located, has its own rich cultural history. The area was once home to the Geijutsu Club, associated with prominent figures such as actress Sumako Matsui and dramatist Hogetsu Shimamura. The young Akira Kurosawa, who would later become one of Japan’s most celebrated film directors, also lived in Yokotera-machi.

These layers of artistic and cultural history are characteristic of Kagurazaka, a neighborhood where traditional performing arts, literature, craftsmanship, and modern culture have long existed side by side.

What You'll Experience: Making Jo-Namagashi and Enjoying Matcha

During the experience, participants make two seasonal jo-namagashi, refined fresh wagashi known for their delicate texture and detailed designs.

Takeshi Inoue guides participants through the process step by step.

You will learn how the confection is shaped, how subtle tools and hand movements create the final design, and how professional artisans transform a small amount of material into an expression of the season.

No previous experience is required.

After making the wagashi, you move into the traditional tea room and enjoy the sweets you have just created with freshly whisked matcha.

This sequence is important.

Instead of completing a craft workshop and simply taking the finished product home, you experience the wagashi in the cultural setting for which such sweets developed.

You make it.

You admire it.

You taste it.

Then you experience how it changes the matcha that follows.

For many travelers, this progression makes the relationship between wagashi and tea ceremony far easier to understand than reading about it alone.

Discover the Wagashi-Making Experience in Kagurazaka

No Language Barrier: Guidance in English, French, Spanish, and German

Traditional cultural experiences can sometimes feel intimidating for international visitors, especially when highly specialized vocabulary or etiquette is involved.

Our wagashi-making experience is supported by EDO KAGURA’s specialized cultural guides, trained in Japanese traditional culture, with interpretation available in English, French, Spanish, and German.

As we explain in our guide to how to hire a tour guide in Japan, a good private guide does more than translate words — they help travelers understand the cultural context behind what they are seeing and experiencing.

The artisan can therefore concentrate on demonstrating the craft, while the guide helps guests understand the techniques, cultural background, seasonal references, and explanations behind what they are doing.

This also makes it easier to ask questions directly.

For example:

Why was a particular seasonal motif chosen?
What makes one type of anko different from another?
Why is a certain design used during a particular month?
What should guests notice when eating wagashi with matcha?
How is the sweet connected to the tea ceremony?

Language support turns the workshop from a demonstration into a conversation.

For travelers interested in culture rather than simply taking photographs, that difference can be substantial.

Beyond the Workshop: Experience Wagashi as Part of the SHOGUN Cultural Experience

Wagashi and tea ceremony are parts of a much larger cultural world that developed over centuries in Japan.

For travelers who would like to go beyond a single workshop, our SHOGUN Cultural Experience in Kagurazaka connects wagashi and matcha with the history, music, and traditional culture of Edo-period Japan.

The experience combines wagashi-making and matcha with a cultural exploration of Kagurazaka and a live kokyu performance by Daisuke Kiba, a musician who contributed to the soundtrack of the FX series SHOGUN.

Wagashi developed significantly during the Edo period, when sugar became more widely available in Japan. The kokyu also flourished as part of Japan’s musical culture during the Edo period.

Experiencing both in the same traditional tea room creates a rare opportunity to encounter the world of the samurai era through all five senses.

Wagashi and tea engage your sight, smell, taste, and touch through seasonal designs, the aroma of matcha, delicate flavors, and the tactile experience of shaping the sweets by hand. The final piece is sound: listening to the kokyu performed live in the same intimate space.

Together, these elements transform the experience from a collection of separate cultural activities into a sensory journey through Edo-period Japan.

This broader experience is designed around a simple idea:

Japanese culture becomes more meaningful when its individual elements are understood as parts of one connected story.

Wagashi expresses the seasons.

Tea culture teaches attentiveness and hospitality.

The tea room embodies traditional Japanese aesthetics.

Kagurazaka preserves layers of Edo and modern Tokyo history.

Traditional music adds another sensory dimension.

Experiencing these elements together allows visitors to move beyond simply "trying Japanese activities" and begin understanding why those traditions developed and how they relate to one another.

Discover the SHOGUN Cultural Experience in Kagurazaka

For travelers seeking a deeper introduction to Japanese traditional culture, wagashi and tea offer an unusually accessible starting point. A small sweet and a bowl of matcha may appear simple, but together they contain centuries of craftsmanship, seasonality, aesthetics, hospitality, and cultural memory.

A live kokyu performance by Daisuke Kiba

About the Author

Shinya Yamada is the founder and Representative Director of EDO KAGURA, a cultural experience company based in Kagurazaka, Tokyo, where he has lived for over 25 years.

Through EDO KAGURA, he works closely with traditional artisans, performers, and cultural practitioners to create authentic experiences for international visitors. His goal is to help travelers understand Japanese culture not only by observing it, but by experiencing it firsthand.