Tea, Words & Tools
木型・きがた
Kigata wooden molds
Hand-carved molds for pressing dry sweets and shaping fresh ones.
Kigata are wooden molds for making rakugan, wasanbon sweets and fresh sweets. Flowers, fish and patterns are carved by hand into hard, dense wood such as mountain cherry.
The carver must imagine the finished sweet and carve everything in reverse — left and right, raised and recessed — a highly skilled craft. It is said that only a handful of artisans who carve confectionery molds remain in all of Japan.
Pack in the dough, give the mold a tap to release it, and a delicate design emerges in crisp relief. Old kigata are treasured as works of craft in their own right.
